Techniques for advertising in electronic commerce

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a system for performing online data queries and purchasing advertisements associated with business listings. The system for performing online data queries is a distributed computer system with a plurality of server nodes each fully redundant and capable of processing a user query request. Each server node includes a data query cache and other caches that may be used in performing data queries. The data query, as well as request allocation, is performed in accordance with an adaptive partitioning technique with a bias towards an initial partitioning scheme. Generic objects are created and used to represent business listings upon which the user may perform queries. Various data processing and integration techniques are included which enhance data queries. An update technique is used for synchronizing data updates as needed in updating the plurality of server nodes. A multi-media data transfer technique is used to transfer non-text or multi-media data between various components of the online query tool. Optimizations for searching, such as the common term optimization, are included for those commonly performed data queries. Also disclosed is a system for targeting advertisements that are displayed to a user of the system. Advertisements may also be purchased using this system. Advertisements are linked to the business listings that may result from a user query for particular types of businesses or listings.

REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. application Ser. No.09/282,356 filed on Mar. 31, 1999 (pending).

The present application is related to the following eleven copendingU.S. patent applications each filed on Mar. 31, 1999, each having itsassignee of the entire interest in common with the assignee of theentire interest of the present application, and having titles and serialnumbers as follows: TARGETED BANNER ADVERTISEMENTS, Ser. No. 09/282,764;COMMON TERM OPTIMIZATION, Ser. No. 09/282,356; GENERIC OBJECT FOR RAPIDINTEGRATION OF DATA CHANGES, Ser. No. 09/283,815; EFFICIENT DATATRANSFER MECHANISM FOR SYNCHRONIZATION OF MULTI-MEDIA DATABASES, Ser.No. 09/283,816; NEW ARCHITECTURE FOR ON-LINE QUERY TOOL, Ser. No.09/283,837; DATA ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES, Ser. No. 09/282,342; DATAMERGING TECHNIQUES, Ser. No. 09/282,295; TECHNIQUES FOR PERFORMINGINCREMENTAL DATA UPDATES, Ser. No. 09/283,820; WEIGHTED TERM RANKING FORON-LINE QUERY TOOL, Ser. No. 09/282,730; ADAPTIVE PARTITIONINGTECHNIQUES IN PERFORMING QUERY REQUESTS AND REQUEST ROUTING, Ser. No.09/282,493; and HYBRID CATEGORY MAPPING FOR ON-LINE QUERY TOOL, Ser. No.09/283,268.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This application generally relates to electronic commerce. Moreparticularly, this application relates to techniques for providingadvertising services in electronic commerce.

The Internet and other networks are channels that may be used bybusinesses in electronic commerce. For example, users may shop andpurchase items electronically on-line. In an effort to take advantage ofanother sales channel, businesses may advertise electronically, as onthe Internet, to provide product information to consumers. In using theon-line systems, it is desirable to have a system that integrates avariety of ad-creation and purchasing options on-line. Additionally, itis desirable to have a system that provides for quick integration of newand varied product offerings.

Thus, there is required an integrated technique and system for on-lineadvertisement purchasing and creation that provides for rapidintegration of new and varied advertisement offerings, and rapidincorporation of new and modified advertisements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with principles of the invention is a method foradvertising in electronic commerce. An electronic advertisement iscreated while connected to a computer network. Advertising servicesassociated with said electronic advertisement are paid for whileconnected to the computer network.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention is a method ofon-line advertising in electronic commerce. A business listing isselected in accordance with a unique identifier uniquely identifying thebusiness listing. An advertising service and corresponding payment planis selected. An advertisement is created. An order is generated for theadvertising service and the advertisement. Payment authorization isobtained. The advertisement is published and charges are generated forsaid advertising service.

In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention is an electroniccommerce system for advertisement creation and purchasing. An ordermanagement component manages electronic advertisement service orders. Anauthentication and access control component provides secure access toadvertisements and business information. A transaction managementcomponent provides for automated payment transactions generated inaccordance with a predetermined advertisement payment schedule. Aproduct and catalogue management component manages advertising servicespresented to a user in accordance with a particular business listing. Auser and content management component manages advertisement content andbusiness listing selection activity associated with a particular user. Apayment server posts and verifies charges electronically.

Thus, there is provided an integrated technique and system for on-lineadvertisement purchasing and creation that provides for rapidintegration of new and varied advertisement offerings, and rapidincorporation of new and modified advertisements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The above-mentioned and other features of the invention will now becomeapparent by reference to the following description taken in connectionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an example of an embodiment of a system that includes anon-line query tool;

FIG. 2 is an example of a block diagram of a hardware view of anembodiment of an on-line query tool;

FIG. 3 is an example of an embodiment of a user interface displayed withan on-line query tool;

FIG. 4 is an example of a block diagram of a software view of an onlinequery tool of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an example of an embodiment of a table illustrating datastorage for denormalized objects in the databases.

FIG. 6 is an example of an embodiment of a table representing datastored in the generic object dictionary;

FIG. 7 is an example of an embodiment of a portion 440 of a PHTMLexecution tree;

FIG. 8 is an example of an embodiment showing more detail of the parsedriver;

FIGS. 9 and 10 are an example of a user interface displayed in responseto a user request with an online query tool;

FIG. 11 is an example of an embodiment of a user interface displayedwith user query information;

FIG. 12 is an example of the query results displayed in response toperforming a user query of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is an example of a user interface which includes user-specifiedquery information;

FIG. 14 is an example of a resulting display page in response to thequery performed with information specified in FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is a more detailed display in response to choosing a particularcategory of FIG. 14;

FIGS. 16 and 17 are an example of a user interface displayed in responseto selecting an option from the menu of FIG. 3 to add or change alisting;

FIG. 18 is an example of a display screen in response to updating thebusiness listing specified in FIGS. 16 and 17;

FIGS. 19 and 20 are an example of a user interface screen displayresults in response to a user request with regard to FIG. 18;

FIG. 21 is an example of a screen display to a user with moreinformation with regard to the business listing selected from screen 20;

FIG. 22 is the business information displayed with regard to thebusiness in FIG. 21;

FIG. 23 is an example of an embodiment of the processes included in therequest router of FIG. 22;

FIG. 24 is an example of a block diagram of an embodiment of theBackoffice component;

FIG. 25 is an example of the flow process representing the processing ofnormalized data to the various data forms included in the Front EndServer;

FIG. 26 is an example of normalized data as may be included in anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 27 is an example of denormalized data form as may be included in anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 28 is a flowchart of an example of an embodiment of a method forperforming request processing in the system of FIGS. 2 and 4;

FIG. 29 is a flowchart of an example of an embodiment of the methodsteps for performing parser processing in the system of FIGS. 2 and 4;

FIG. 30 is a flowchart of an example of a method with steps forperforming query engine processing in the system of FIGS. 2 and 4;

FIG. 31 is an example of a dependency graph as may be included in oneembodiment of the invention for performing incremental update;

FIG. 32 is an example of a flowchart of the method steps for performingdifferent update techniques in accordance with the number oftransactions;

FIG. 33 is a flowchart of an example of method steps of one embodimentfor performing data query cache lookup as used in performing a dataquery;

FIG. 34 represents an example of applying the minimum cost derivationsequence as applied in the step of FIG. 33;

FIG. 35 is a flowchart of an embodiment of method with steps for forminga name and determining if the corresponding data set is located in thequery cache;

FIG. 36 is an example of an entity as stored in the data query cache;

FIG. 37 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method including steps forperforming an additional total-city cache lookup;

FIGS. 37 and 38 are flowcharts for a method in one embodiment forperforming total-city and multi-city cache searches;

FIG. 39 is an example of more details that may be included in aembodiment of the query engine;

FIG. 40 is an example of an embodiment of method steps by which theinformation retrieval software may obtain results;

FIG. 41 is a flow chart showing an example of an embodiment of methodsteps for obtaining results;

FIG. 42 is a flow chart showing an example of method steps forclassifying results for queries using common terms;

FIG. 43 depicts an example of a user interface for an on-line querytool, including a screen for initiating a user query;

FIG. 44 depicts an example of a user interface for an on-line querytool, including categories that may be retrieved in response toinitiation of a user query;

FIG. 45 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the database as may beincluded in the Backoffice component;

FIG. 46 through 52 are flowcharts depicting processing steps in a methodof one embodiment for performing foreign source data integration; and

FIGS. 53 through 58 are flowcharts of a method of one embodiment forperforming native source data integration processing.

FIG. 59 is an example of an embodiment of data tables included on asending node for a multi-media data transfer;

FIG. 60 is an example of an embodiment of the tables as appearing on thesending side and the receiving side in the multi-media data transfer;

FIG. 61 is an example of a representation of a tree structurerepresenting the relationships between entities used in the multi-mediatransfer;

FIG. 62 is a snapshot of the tables that may be included in a preferredembodiment in sending data in a multi-media data transfer;

FIG. 63 is a snapshot of an example of an embodiment of the tables onthe sending and receiving side at another point when performing amulti-media data transfer;

FIG. 64 is an example of an embodiment of tables and external processeson the sending and receiving side using the multi-media data transfer;

FIG. 65 is an example of an embodiment of the tables resulting from thetext data integration;

FIG. 66 is an example of a block diagram of an embodiment of the datatable whose contents have been transferred to the receiving side;

FIG. 67 is a flowchart of a method of the steps of one embodiment forassembling blob data into a repository table when performing amulti-media data transfer;

FIG. 68 is a flow chart setting forth method steps for establishingsuper-category term lists and for matching advertisements tosuper-categories, to assist in targeting an advertisement to a user ofan on-line query tool;

FIG. 69 is a flow chart setting forth method steps for mappingcategories to super-categories;

FIG. 70 is a flow chart setting forth method steps for executing amodified query in an on-line query tool designed to assist in targetingan advertisement to a user of an on-line query tool;

FIG. 71 is a diagram showing an example of a linked super-category termlist;

FIG. 72 is a flowchart of an example of a embodiment of a method forpurchasing on-line advertisements;

FIG. 73 is an example of a user interface when a user wishes to purchasean advertisement;

FIG. 74 is an example of a user interface displayed when a businessphone number entry is selected;

FIG. 75 is an example of an embodiment of a user interface display withregard to contact and log in information as associated with a particularuser;

FIGS. 76 through 78 by example page listings displayed with regard toadvertising options and services which a user may purchase;

FIG. 79 is an example of the initial create a webpage displayed to auser;

FIG. 80 is an example of the user interface displayed with regard tocreating a header for the webpage;

FIG. 81 is an example of the resulting header created;

FIG. 82 is an example of the different page styles that one may selectwith regard to creating a webpage with an on-line tool;

FIGS. 83 through 85 are examples of fields that the user supplies datafor in connection with the pages styles selected in FIG. 82;

FIG. 86 is an example of a resulting webpage created;

FIG. 87 is an example of a user interface displayed after the ad webpageis created;

FIG. 88 is an example of a user interface displayed where a user selectsvarious payment options for a particular advertisement;

FIG. 89 is an example of an invoice and purchase resulting from theon-line advertisement order;

FIG. 90 is an example of a user interface displayed to a user to obtainpayment and credit card information;

FIG. 91 is an example of a resulting screen which may be displayed to auser when the credit card number in FIG. 90 is invalid;

FIGS. 92 through 95 is an example of a user interface displayed toobtain information for a fact file;

FIG. 96 is an example of a created entry for a fact file used toverified the information entered;

FIG. 97 is an example of user interface displayed after the fact fileand webpage have been created;

FIG. 98 is an example of an invoice and purchase displayed on-line to auser in response to creating a webpage and fact file for on-lineadvertisement;

FIG. 99 is an example of an embodiment of a Backoffice component whichincludes a SuperCommerce engine;

FIG. 100 is an example of an embodiment of a SuperCommerce engine inFIG. 99;

FIG. 101 is a flowchart of an example of a method of steps as performedby a user in purchasing an on-line advertisement;

FIG. 102 is a example of an embodiment of the steps performed by theSuperCommerce engine in performing a query of a database included in theBackoffice;

FIG. 103 is an example of an embodiment of the advertisement modelrepresented and used as embodiment of the SuperCommerce engine;

FIG. 104 is an example of the various tables used and presentation ofinformation with regard to a business advertisement;

FIG. 105 is an example of SuperCommerce engine in a particular paymentserver;

FIG. 106 is an example of an embodiment of the various tables in thecreation and generation of bills from orders;

FIG. 107 is a flowchart of an example of the method steps for producingand processing various bills and their associated transactions; and

FIG. 108 is an example of an embodiment of a Product Information Table.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to FIG. 1, shown is an embodiment of an on-line query tool1910. In an embodiment, one or more users 1900-1904 may connect to theon-line query tool 1910 via a network 1906. Users may interact with thequery tool using conventional hardware and software, such as, in anembodiment, a web browser through the Internet.

Referring now to FIG. 2, shown is an embodiment of a hardware view of anon-line query tool. In one embodiment, this on-line query tool may bethe GTE Superpagess^(SM) query tool. FIG. 2 shows a hardware view of thecomponents that may be included in one embodiment of the query tool intypical operation as being accessed by a user through a network. Theuser 800 enters a query request which is sent via a network 802, such asthe Internet, to the GTE Superpages Front End Server 804. The GTESuperpages Front End Server 804 includes a hardware router 806 forreceiving incoming query requests. The hardware router routes therequest, using a simple hardware-based technique, to one of the servernodes 808-810 which may be designated to service the request byperforming the requested query. The servers 808 through 810, server 1through server n, respectively, interact with the Primary Database 812and Secondary Database 814 to perform a data query. The Primary Database812 interacts with the Backoffice component 818 at times, as will bedescribed in paragraphs elsewhere herein, to obtain data used inperforming the queries. The Backoffice component 818 performs datafiltering and other processing, for example, to combine information thatmay be obtained from various data sets producing a resultant data set.The resultant data set is subsequently transferred to the PrimaryDatabase for use by the various server nodes 808 through 810.

The process of data integration and updating the data, for example, fromthe Backoffice to the Front End Server, may be performed at a time otherthan peak demand time. These processes and data transfer techniques, aswill be described in following paragraphs, are generally performed“off-line” and not in response to user query requests. Rather, thesetechniques may be performed as part of a data maintenance and updateprocess performed in accordance with the system load and the number andtype of update transactions.

FIG. 2 depicts a Superpages Front End Server 804 which includes avarying number of server nodes 808-810 to respond to the various queryrequests as made by a user 800. The techniques and concepts which aredescribed in paragraphs that follow may be used in a variety ofdifferent systems which include one or more server systems.Additionally, a single database or other datastore may be used. Thetechniques described herein may generally be applied to a largedistributed system. Additionally, these same concepts and techniques maybe applied in a single user system performing data queries and searchesupon a local database.

Referring now to FIG. 3, shown is an example of a user interface screenas included in one embodiment of the system of FIG. 2. Generally, FIG. 3is the initial screen 1800 that may be displayed to a user entering aURL corresponding to the GTE Superpages Internet site. FIG. 3 includesfields for query information 1802-1808, hyperlinks to other tools 1810,such as on-line shopping or placing advertisements, and other links1812, for performing other tasks such as modifying an existing businesslisting.

The GTE Superpages Internet site is related to on-line yellow pages,similar to those included in a paper phone book. With these on-lineyellow pages, various business services and user services may beprovided. For example, a user may query the on-line yellow pageinformation for various businesses in the United States based onparticular search criteria. On-line shopping information regardingproducts and business services may be provided to a user performing adata query. Advertisers, such as the business providers of the variousproducts and services, may also purchase advertisements similar to thosethat may be purchased in the paper copy of a phone book that includesyellow page listings of businesses.

The interface 1800 may include links to various services and functions.For example, one service provided permits businesses to advertise in theon-line yellow pages. Functions associated with this service mayinclude, for example, purchasing advertisements and adding or changing abusiness listing that an advertiser or business includes in the yellowpages. In FIG. 3, some of these functions are included in the interfaceportion 1812, with links to other tools in the screen portion 1810. Auser may connect with any of these tools or functions to perform tasksrelated to the yellow pages advertising by selecting an option from theuser interface 1800, such as by left-clicking with a mouse.

Other interfaces with varying functions may be directed to a user. Othertypes of network connections in addition to the Internet may also beincluded in other embodiments and may vary with each application andembodiment.

Referring now to FIG. 4, shown is an embodiment of the various softwarecomponents for an on-line query system. One embodiment may be theon-line query tool of the GTE Superpages system. FIG. 4 depicts asoftware view of the typical operation of the system as being accessedby a user 800 through a network 802 using the hardware as described inconjunction with FIG. 2. As previously described, the user may enter arequest, as through a browser. This request is communicated through theGTE Superpages Front End Server 804 over the network 802. As shown inFIG. 4, the Front End Server 804 includes server node 808 that includesa web server engine 852. In one embodiment, the web server engine 852 isa Netscape™ engine which serves as a central coordinating task foraccessing files and displaying information to the user on the browser824. The server node 808 also includes a request router 854, a monitorprocess 856 and a parser 866. The parser 866 generally includes a parsedriver 858, a generic object dictionary 860, a query engine 862, and adata manager 864. The parse driver 858 operates upon data from aconstructed ad repository 842 and the PHTML files 844. Additionally, theparse driver 858 stores and retrieves data from the PHTML execution tree846 and the page cache 848. The data manager 864 included in the parser866 is responsible for interacting with the database, which in the FIG.4 is the Primary Database 812. It should also be noted that the datamanager 864 may also obtain data from a Secondary Database as previouslyshown in FIG. 4. If there are multiple databases other than a Primaryand Secondary Database, the data manager may also interact with these toobtain the necessary data upon which data queries are performed. Thequery engine 862 operates upon data from, and writes data to, the dataquery cache 850. Additionally, the query engine uses data from the termlists 836 to obtain identifiers and possibly other retrievable data inaccordance with various key terms upon which a data query is beingperformed. The request router 854 generally interacts with the parserand reads data from the configuration file 830 and load file 834. Themonitor process 856 also reads and writes data to and from respectivelythe load file 834. The web server engine 852, in this embodiment theNetscape engine 852, obtains data from the HTML repository 838 and theimage repository 840 in accordance with various requests from thebrowser for different types of files. Each of the foregoing componentswill be described in more detail in terms of function and operation inparagraphs that follow. The monitor process 856 is generally responsiblefor indicating the availability of server nodes 808-810 in performingdata queries. The monitor is also generally responsible for receivingincoming messages from other server nodes as to their availability forservicing requests.

The load file 834, upon which the monitor process 856 reads and writesdata, is a dynamic file in that its contents are updated in response toincoming messages indicating machine availability and the current loadof the corresponding machine. The load file also includes staticinformation components, such as the maximum load of each system.Generally, the actual executing load (current load) of a system is lessthan or equal to the maximum load (max load) as indicated in accordancewith the load file. Each server has its own unique copy of the load filewhich is updated in accordance with messages which it receives from theother nodes. Below is an example of an entry that may be included in theload file representing the information described above:

Server, Max Load, Current Load.

The configuration file 830 may be a static file physically located onone of the server nodes 808-810 with a copy replicated on each otherserver node. Generally, this file is created prior to use of the system.It may specify which servers may service requests based on weightedparameters of a particular search domain associated with a particularserver. Below is an example of an entry in a configuration file:

Domain/Partition, Server, Domain Weight, Server Weight

The domain weight may be a normalized value representing costs (e.g.,time) associated with processing a request for this associated searchdomain or partition. This domain weight is based on the median time toservice a request in that domain based on the analysis of past datalogs, for example, as normalized by the number of listings in thedomain. Similarly, server weights may represent the cost associated withprocessing a request on a particular server. The domain/partitionindicates a portion of the search domain upon which a user query may beperformed that is associated with a particular server.

Other particular embodiments of the load and configuration files mayinclude additional or different information in accordance with theparticular policies and data required to implement the policies, such asrequest routing.

In this particular embodiment, an incoming request may be processed byone of a plurality of parsers 858 on each of the server nodes. Theparser 858 generally transforms the user input query into a form used byother components, such as the request router. The request routergenerally receives an incoming request as forwarded by the hardwarerouter 806 of FIG. 2. The request router subsequently uses the load fileand the configuration file to decide which server node 808-810 a requestis routed to based on the load and the availability of the server node,and the designated server for each partition or domain. Once a requestis routed to one of the server nodes 808-810, the query is performedproducing data query information that may be cached, for example, in thememory of a data query cache 850.

One use of the data query cache 850, as will be described in paragraphsthat follow, is its use in improving the performance in response to auser request in a subsequent query that may use a subset or superset ofthe data stored in the data query cache 850. A superset or compositionquery is one which is a boolean composite of several querying terms. Acomposition query may be determined by the parser 866, and the requestrouter 854 may decide to which server node 808-810 the composition queryor other query is sent for processing in accordance with domain weightsas indicated in the configuration file. Reallocation of requests when aserver is unavailable may be performed generally with a bias toward theinitial allocation scheme as indicated also by the configuration file.There is an assumption that reallocation of a request is on a transientbasis, and that the initial allocation scheme is the one to bemaintained. This concept will be described in paragraphs that follow inaccordance with request routing and data query caching.

Also shown in FIG. 4 are the PHTML execution tree 846, the page cache848, and the PHTML file store 844. Generally, the PHTML execution tree846 includes an expanded version of a PHTML file requested from thePHTML file 844 as the result, for example, of a user query. PHTMLgenerally is a modified version of the HTML language, which is a markuplanguage according to the Standardized General Markup Language (SGML)standard, capable of interpretation by browsers, such as a Netscapebrowser. PHTML generally is a scripted version of HTML with conditionalstatements that provide for alternate inclusion of blocks of HTML codein a resulting HTML page transmitted to a browser in accordance withcertain run time query conditions. The expanded version of a PHTML filemay be described as a parse tree representing parsed and expanded PHTMLfiles. For example, if a PHTML file conditionally includes accesses toother PHTML files or various portions of HTML commands, the parse treestructure reflects this in its representation of the parse tree which iscached in the PHTML execution tree 846. Upon a subsequent request forthe same PHTML file, the cached, expanded version is retrieved from thePHTML execution tree 846 to increase system efficiency, therebydecreasing user response time for the subsequent query.

The first time a user makes a request via the browser 824, a request isreceived by the webserver engine 852 which interacts with the parser866. For a particular user request, a PHTML file is obtained andexecuted from the PHTML file store 844. The expanded version of thePHTML file is cached in the PHTML execution tree 846. In response to auser's request, an HTML page is generally constructed and cached in thepage cache 848. Generally, constructed HTML pages are stored in the pagecache 848 if the amount of time taken to produce the resulting HTML pageis greater than a predetermined threshold. Implementations of the pagecache may implement different replacement schemes. In one preferredembodiment, the page cache implements an LRU replacement scheme.Additionally, the threshold, the amount of time used to determine whichpages are stored in the page cache, may vary with system and responsetime requirements.

When processing an incoming user request which results in returning anHTML page to a user, a particular search order of the previouslydescribed caches and file systems may be performed. Initially, it isdetermined whether the HTML page to be displayed to the user is locatedin the page cache 848. If not, search results are obtained from thequery cache and the resulting HTML page is constructed and itself may beplaced in the page cache 848. If a PHTML file is required to be executedin constructing the resulting HTML file, the PHTML execution tree 846may be accessed to determine if there is a parsed version of therequired PHTML file already expanded in the PHTML execution tree. If nosuch file is located in the PHTML execution tree 846, the PHTML file 844is accessed to obtain the required PHTML file. The order in which thesecaches and file systems are searched is generally in accordance with agraduated processing state of producing the resulting HTML file. Cachesassociated with a later state of processing are generally searched priorto ones associated with an earlier processing state in producing theresulting HTML file.

Also accessed by the parse driver 858 is a constructed ad repository842. As will be described in paragraphs that follow, the constructed adrepository generally includes constructed advertisement pages which mayinclude, for example, text and non-text data, such as audio and graphicimages to be displayed in response to a user query which represent, forexample, a yellow pages ad. The webserver engine 852 accessesinformation from the image repository 840 and HTML repository 838.Generally, the image repository 840 includes various graphic images andother non-text data which may also be directly accessed by the webserverengine 852 in response to a user request, as by a user request for aspecific URL. Similarly, the HTML repository 838 includes various HTMLfiles which may be provided to the user, for example, in response to auser request with a specific URL which indicates a file.

Included in each of the server nodes 808-810 are one or more parsers 866which perform, for example, parsing of the text of a user data queryrequest. FIG. 4 includes some of the software components as included inthe parser 866. The components of the parser 866, which are described inmore detail in the following paragraphs, generally communicate using ageneric object dictionary 860. The parser may include a parse driver 858which performs the actual parsing of a user query. The parse driver 858interacts with the query engine 862 once a request has been parsed toformulate a data query which is further passed to the data manager 864.As previously described, the data manager 864 generally interacts with adatabase to actually retrieve the data to be included in the resultantdata query as displayed to the user.

The parse driver 858 generally uses a data schema description tointerpret various data fields of the generic data objects. Generally,abstraction of the data interpretation into the data schema descriptionenables different components of the parser 866 to operate upon and usegeneric data objects without requiring these components require codechanges or recompilation in cases of the introduction of new datapresentation types. Components which need to know the details of thegeneric data object, such as the parse driver 858, to perform certainfunctions, do this on a per-component basis using data schemadescriptions to interpret a generic data object. This techniqueinsulates code as included in the parser 866 from the introduction ofnew presentation types which may be represented as generic data objects.

One common use of the GTE Superpages Internet site is to perform a dataquery. In performing a data query, a user enters data query information,as in fields 1802-1808 of FIG. 3, or may select other detailed searchoptions, such as searching by distance, as included in field 1808. Inthis embodiment, data field 1802 is a category query field by whichqueries may be performed in accordance with specified search categoriesthat may be associated with business listings included in the yellowpages database. Additionally, field 1802 also includes predetermined topcategories, as may be determined by examining log files in accordancewith user query selections and search criteria. In this embodiment,selection of the “top categories” of the field 1802, as by left-clickingwith a mouse button, causes the interface 1820 of FIG. 9 to be displayedin a user's browser.

Referring now to FIGS. 9 and 10, shown is one embodiment of a userinterface for displaying a first page of the top query categories 1820.Generally, these categories are associated with the various businesslistings and are tags by which a user may perform queries. In thisembodiment, for example, the user may select the “top categories” fromthe initial interface as included in the field 1802.

Referring now to FIG. 11, shown is one embodiment of a user interfacefor displaying a “search by distance” option. In this embodiment, thisuser interface screen may be displayed by selecting “detailed search”from the field 1808 from the initial user interface 1800. For example,the user interface 1830 may be displayed if the user wants to perform adata query for specified categories and certain distance criteria. Asshown in the example of user interface 1830, a data query may beperformed for restaurants within five (5) miles of Boston, Mass. Thisquery is performed when the user selects the “Find It” button 1832 asincluded in the user interface 1830. In this embodiment, a first screen1840 of the data query results is shown in FIG. 12.

Referring now to FIG. 13, shown is an example of one embodiment of auser interface display 1850 for performing a user query in accordancewith user-specified search criteria. User interface 1850 of FIG. 13 isthe interface 1800 of FIG. 3, but with user-specified data queryinformation included in various data fields. In FIG. 13, a data query isperformed for “shoes” as the category 1802 for “Boston, Mass.” in field1804. The query is performed by selecting the “Find It” button of field1806. The resulting screen displayed in response to selection of the“Find It” button is included in FIG. 14.

Referring to FIG. 14, shown is one example of a screen display inresponse to a performing a user query. The screen results 1860 mayinclude displayed summarized business listing information in accordancewith the search criteria previously specified in FIG. 14. Variousbusiness listings may be grouped together in categories. In thisexample, relating to “shoes”, are 154 business listings included inthirteen (13) categories. From this listing of thirteen (13) categories,the user may select one of these relating to shoes. For example,selection, as by using a mouse, of “custom made shoes” 1862 results inthe screen display of FIG. 15.

Referring now to FIG. 15, shown are the business listings relating tothe user-specified search criteria selection relating to “custom madeshoes”. From this screen 1870, the user may further select one of thebusinesses for more information pertaining to the business, such asdirections and business-provided advertisements.

Referring now to FIGS. 16 and 17, shown is one embodiment of a userinterface that may be displayed when a business or advertiser updates abusiness listing. This screen may be displayed, for example, byselection of the “add or change your listing” option 1812 of FIG. 3 ofthe initial user interface. A user interface 1880 provides data fieldswhich allow a user to enter in information, such as a telephone numbercorresponding to a business listing. Corresponding business listinginformation is then updated. In this example, a phone number617-832-5000 is entered into field 1882 to retrieve business listinginformation corresponding to this phone number. By selecting the phonenumber field that is filled in with this phone number, the resultingscreen of FIG. 18 is subsequently displayed to the user in thisembodiment. The phone number corresponds to a business as displayed inFIG. 18. If this is the correct business, a user may select a displayedbusiness, for example, by clicking on the “matching business”information of FIG. 18. In response to selecting the “matching business”information, the screen display of FIGS. 19 and 20 may be displayed to auser. To update the basic listing information associated with thebusiness, selection of field 1890 of FIG. 20 results in display of thescreen of FIG. 21 where the user has the option to either update thebusiness information or change categories. If business information isselected, FIG. 22 may be displayed. FIG. 22 includes the businesslisting information that may be updated, such as a street address ore-mail address associated with this business listing.

Referring back to FIG. 16, a section of the displayed interface 1883indicates options for creating a website linked to a particular businesslisting. Note also that in some embodiments, it is possible to enhance abusiness listing and/or link a listing to a pre-existing website or toone that is created.

The foregoing user interfaces and display results may vary withembodiments and user-specified search criteria. Various other userinterfaces and other techniques known to those of ordinary skill in theart for specifying user search criteria may be used in other embodimentsof the invention.

Referring to FIG. 23, shown is an embodiment of the request router 854.In this particular embodiment, the request router 854 may be executedwithin a Netscape server process space and may be invoked when a user,via a browser, makes a request which results in a PHTML file beingexecuted. The PHTML files, as generally included in the PHTML file store844, are in the form of a script activated when a server node 808-810 isforwarded a user request.

The request router 854 is generally responsible for routing a request tothe proper server node in accordance with data stored in theconfiguration and load files. The request is also forwarded to one ofthe plurality of parsers for processing once the proper server node hasbeen located. In this embodiment, the request router 854 may includeseveral threads of execution as shown in FIG. 23, which operate underthe control of, and in the same process space as, the Netscape browser.As shown in FIG. 23, the request router 854 generally includes ahousekeeping thread 880, a router thread 882, and one or more workerthreads 884. Generally, the housekeeping thread 880 is responsible formaintaining a parser status table 886 and a parser queue 888, both ofwhich are further described below.

The router thread 882 generally responds to the monitor process changesas recorded in the various data files with regard to server nodeavailability. The router thread 882 reads data from the configurationand load files, and maintains an in-memory copy for use by the variousthreads of the request router 854. The router thread 882 updates thein-memory copy of the configuration and load files in accordance withpredetermined node fail-over and reallocation-of-request policies. Forexample, if in reading the configuration and load files, the routerthread 882 determines that a first server node is at maximumutilization, the router thread updates its in-memory, server-node, localversion of the files. The router thread determines not to forwardrequests to the first server. When the first server node's actualutilization decreases and is now available for processing additionalrequests, the router thread accordingly updates its in-memory copy.

Each of the worker threads 884 is initially forwarded a request whicharrives at a server node. The worker thread 884 makes the decisionwhether the request should be routed to another node. The worker thread884 makes this decision generally in accordance with the contents of theconfiguration and load files as previously described. If a request isdetermined to be routed to another server, the worker thread forwardsthe request to another worker thread on another server node. If theworker thread does not forward the request to another server, the workerthread determines which parser to send the request to for furtherprocessing. The list of available parsers is stored in the parser queue888, which in this particular embodiment is implemented as an AT&TSystem 5™ with a system message queue. The parser queue is generallymaintained by the housekeeping thread 880.

It should be noted that the Netscape™ or other HTTP server provides as aservice the dispatching of requests to the various worker threads. Otherimplementations may provide this function using other techniques such ascallback mechanisms which dispatch the user requests to one of theplurality of available worker threads 884. Generally, the parser statustable 886′ includes information about use, availability and location ofeach of the plurality of parsers on each server node. The parser statusinformation may be used in determining where to route requests forexample, as performed by the worker thread 884. The parser statusinformation as included in the parser status table 886 may be used toroute requests based on an adaptive technique similar to the adaptivecaching technique which will be described in paragraphs that follow.This may be particularly useful in systems with multiple processors, forexample, those in which certain CPUs are dedicated processors associatedwith predetermined parsers. For example, as particular requests areprocessed by particular parsers, each associated with a particular CPU,the parsing results may be stored in the PHTML execution tree accessedby the particular processor. Subsequent requests which are alsoprocessed by the same parser may access the cache parsing results storedin the PHTML execution tree.

In this particular embodiment, the request processing model includes aplurality of parsers and a plurality of worker threads. Using thisrequest processing model, an incoming request is associated with aparticular worker thread which then forwards the request to a parser forprocessing. Once this request has been associated or forwarded to aparticular parser, the worker thread is disassociated with the request,and is then available for use in the pool of worker threads. The numberof parsers and worker threads may be tuned in accordance with the numberof user requests. One point to note using this model is that the workerthread and the parser are disassociated and thought of as distinctprocessing units rather than as a unit in which a worker thread isassociated with a particular parser for processing an entire life of arequest.

Referring now to FIG. 24, shown is a block diagram of an embodiment ofthe Backoffice component 818. Generally, the Backoffice componentincludes a database 892 which provides data, for example, to the FrontEnd Server 804 through connection 822. The database 892, as stored inthe Backoffice component, may be updated, as through a webserver via aconnection to a user. Such a connection as 896 may be used, for example,when a modification is made to an entry to correct typographical error.A user may connect, such as via a browser, using connection 896, to thewebserver 894 included in the Backoffice component. The database 892 isthen accessed and updated in accordance with requests or updates made bythe user.

Other embodiments of the Backoffice component may include other softwarecomponents than those displayed in FIG. 24. Additionally, a user mayupdate entries included in database 892 using techniques other than by aconnection 896 via a webserver to the database 892. As described inother sections of this description, different types of updates todatabase 892 may be performed in different embodiments of the invention.For example, the database 892 may be updated on a per-entry basis by avariety of users connecting via multiple webserver connections.Additionally, periodic updates, for example, for particular data set maybe provided from a particular vendor, and accordingly integrated intodatabase 892 through a database integration technique rather than havinga user manually enter these updates such as via a connection to thewebserver 894.

The connection to the Front End Server 822 may be used, for example, toload a new copy of the database 892 into the Front End Server Primaryand Secondary Databases 812, 814 as shown in FIG. 2. The way in whichthese updates may be sent across the connection 822 to the Front EndServer may be as previously described in terms of database operationalcommands which perform updates from the computer system which includedatabase 892. For example, in one embodiment, the database 892 includedin the Backoffice component and both the Primary and SecondaryDatabases, as included in FIG. 24, are Oracle™ databases. Oracleprovides remote database update and access commands which allow forremote database access and updating, such as update requests from thedatabase server node 892 to update the Primary Database 812 as stored inthe Front End Server 804. In this embodiment, updates as made to thedatabase 892 are “pushed” to the Front End Server 804 via the connection822. These modifications are pushed via database-provided updatetechniques such as those included when sending the operational tablecommands to the Front End Server 804.

In this particular embodiment when information is sent via connection822 to the Front End Server 804 from the Backoffice component 818, errormessages and other status codes may be sent back to the Backofficecomponent 818 in accordance with an indication as to whether a datatransfer, for example, has been successfully completed.

Referring now to FIG. 25, shown is an embodiment of a general process bywhich data that is transferred from the Backoffice 818 to the Front EndServer 804 is further integrated into other data stores within the FrontEnd Server 804. Data is stored in the Backoffice component in thisparticular embodiment in a normalized dataform, as will be furtherdescribed in paragraphs that follow. These normalized data changes aretransferred to the Front End Server 804 from the Backoffice component inone of several forms. For example, the entire database may betransferred to the Front End Server 804. Additionally, changes orupdates to particular entries may also be transmitted to the Front EndServer 804 from the Backoffice component rather than updating oroverwriting the entire copy of the database as stored in the Front EndServer 804. Each of these types of database updates from the Backofficecomponent to the Front End Server 804 may be done in accordance with thenumber of transactions or updates to be performed. This is furtherdescribed in other sections of this description.

Data which is stored in the Front End Server 804 may be stored in anormalized data format 900. Extraction routines 902 operate upon thisnormalized data to produce denormalized data 904 and markup languagefiles 906. The markup language files 906 serve as input to informationretrieval software 908 which outputs term lists 836. As known to thoseskilled in the art, a markup language file generally includes tags whichrepresent commands or text identifiers for processing the contents ofthe file. For example, Structured Generalized Markup Language, SGML, isa standard based markup language known to those skilled in the art.

The process depicted in FIG. 25 is performed once data has been receivedin the Primary Database 812, and is first stored in the Primary Database812 in normalized data form, as in the normalized data store 900.Extraction routines 902 examine the normalized data store 900 andrearrange the information to place it in the denormalized data form,also included in the Primary Database 812 of this embodiment. Thesechanges or updates for the normalized data which are transformed intothe denormalized data form are integrated into the denormalized datastore 904. Additionally, the extraction routines 902 produce markuplanguage files 906 which are primarily used by the information retrievalsoftware to produce identifiers and corresponding words or terms uponwhich a query may be performed. These lists of key words or terms whichmay be searchable or retrievable and the corresponding recordidentifiers as included in the denormalized data store 904 may be storedin a list structure as included in the term list data store 836.

Generally, the markup language files include one file or document perbusiness for which there is an advertisement, for example, in thisparticular embodiment. Each of the markup language files 906 includesmarkup language statements, such as SGML-like statements, with tagsidentifying key data items in the document for each business. In thisparticular embodiment, the information retrieval software is Veritysoftware which uses as input markup language files 906. Additionally,Verity uses its own schema file by which a user indicates what key wordsor terms as indicated in the markup language files are searchable andwhich of the data fields contain retrievable information. “Searchable”as used herein means fields or key words and terms upon which searchesmay be performed, like index searching keys. “Retrievable” as usedherein generally means fields or categories with associated data thatmay be retrieved. All searchable fields have a tag, such as a businessname or city. Identifiers are generally produced by the informationretrieval software 908. Verity™, in this particular embodiment, producesterm lists 836 in which there exists a list for each particular keyword, term or category followed by a chain of identifiers that indicatethe record number in the denormalized data store 904. Additionally,associated with each element in the term list which indicates a recordin the denormalized data, retrievable data associated with that recordmay also be included. For example, if the field “zip code” includes atag as included in the mark-up language file 906 which indicates thatthis particular field is searchable, it may be desired that whenever auser wishes to do a search for “zip code” what is actually retrieved ordisplayed to the user is the city and the state. Accordingly, in thisinstance, the term list and the term list data store 836 contain a listcorresponding to the key word “zip code”. There is a term list for eachparticular value of a zip code. Attached to each key word “zip code” andthe particular value may be a list or a chain of identifiers. Associatedwith each identifier on the chain may be associated data, such as thecity and state, which may be retrieved when a particular zip code issearched.

Other types of data may also be included in other preferred embodimentsof the term lists. For example, the data included in the term lists maybe data that is also needed in performing search optimizations, weightedsearches, or different types of searches, such as proximity searches.This data may further be stored in the various data files and caches ofthe Front End Server as needed in accordance with each implementation,for example in accordance with the types of searches and data upon whichqueries may be performed or otherwise operated upon by the Front EndServer.

Referring now to FIG. 26, shown is a detailed description of oneembodiment of an example of normalized data, as may be stored in theBackoffice component and one copy in the Primary Database 812.Generally, in the Primary and Secondary Databases 812 and 814,respectively, of FIG. 2, the Primary Database 812 includes bothnormalized and denormalized data form, and the Secondary Database 814includes only denormalized data form. Normalized data is thatrepresentation of the data in which each data relation is representedindependent of other relations. Generally, denormalized data is theantithesis of a normalized data in which one data relation representsall relations. Different databases may be of different degrees ofnormalized and denormalized data. The Backoffice component 818 generallystores the data in normalized data form of a certain degree. Similarly,the databases used in this server store the data in a form of anormalized form also of a certain degree and additionally in adenormalized form for search performance optimizations on performingdata queries. In one embodiment, for example, the data is stored inthird degree normal form. Additionally, in the denormalized form, setsof data may be stored together within a single field, such as multiplemailing addresses. Other embodiments may have one field per address.This may prove to be advantageous, for example, for high performance andbetter flexibility in systems subject to multiple and diverse datasources, and a high rate of modifications.

As shown in FIG. 26, for example, each particular business entry mayhave a unique identifier, (ID). Additionally, three pieces ofinformation may be stored for each particular business. The normalizeddata form may look as in FIG. 26. In this particular example, there maybe a separate table for each ID corresponding to a business and itsbusiness address 910. Additionally, there may be two other data tablesof information also indexed by each particular business ID, such asemail address 912 and telephone number 914. Generally, as indicated inFIG. 26, the normalized data representation for each business associatedwith a particular ID is represented as a separate data relationindependent of the other relations.

The conceptual opposite of normalized data is denormalized data, asdepicted in FIG. 27. Referring now to FIG. 27, shown is an example ofdenormalized data stored in table 916. In this example of denormalizeddata, for each ID associated with a business, the business address,email and telephone number, may be stored in a single record. In otherwords, one data relation, which is a single record in the table 916,represents all relations for one particular data set, such as the IDcorresponding to a business. Various degrees of denormalized andnormalized data as known to those skill in the art, may be used. Theoptimal degree of normalized and denormalized data forms may vary witheach particular implementation and embodiment.

Referring back to FIG. 20, it may generally be noted that the Backofficecomponent 818 may include one or more database servers 892. A user maydirectly interact with the web server 894 included in the Backofficecomponent via connection 896 which, for example, may be a networkconnection of a user accessing the web server through the Internet. Theuser may also interact directly with the Backoffice component throughthe Front End Server Connection 822.

In this embodiment, the particular type and number of data fields mayvary with embodiment. Additional structure may also be imparted to datafields, such as a telephone number may include an area code and exchangecomponent. Additionally, interactions between the Primary Database 812of the Front End Server 822 and the Backoffice component may be drivenor controlled by the Backoffice component. For example, when there is anupdate to be performed to the Primary Database server 820, an automatictransfer of the new information may be transmitted to the PrimaryDatabase 812 by the Backoffice component. Data may be transmitted to thePrimary Database 812 using connection 822. Additionally, connection 822may be used to provide feedback or status information to the back officecomponent 818, for example, regarding success or failure of a datatransfer using connection 822.

As generally described, the PHTML files 844 of FIG. 4 are generally HTMLinstructions as interpreted generally by a browser with additionalembedded processing instructions. Generally, the PHTML execution tree846 may be implemented as a C++ applet class with various executemethods which are conditionally performed based upon the evaluation ofcertain conditions as indicated in the PHTML scripting languagestatements. Each of the PHTML files 844 may be expanded and evaluated inaccordance with the particular conditions of the user request. The firsttime a PHTML file is accessed, it is expanded and the expanded versionis placed in the PHTML execution tree 846 of FIG. 4. Subsequent accessesto the same PHTML file result in the conditional evaluation of thestored and expanded PHTML file in accordance with the run timeperformance and evaluation of a user request, as from browser 824.

An HTML page is generally formed and displayed to the user. For example,the HTML page may be formed by the parser after interaction with thedata manager and query engine to select a specific number of items to bedisplayed to the user. The HTML page may be stored in the page cache848. The page cache generally includes a naming convention such as afile system in which the name of the file corresponds to the argumentsand parameters of the query. The technique for forming the name isdescribed in other paragraphs of this application.

The query engine 862 is generally responsible for performing anyrequired sorting of the query information or subsetting and supersettingof information. Generally, the query engine 862 retrieves variousidentifiers which act as keys into the Primary Database 812 or SecondaryDatabase 814 for accessing particular pieces of information in responseto a user query. After the query engine 862 formulates and retrievesvarious identifiers, for example as from the term lists, whichcorrespond to a particular user query, this query information in theform of term list and retrieved information may be stored in the dataquery cache 850. A technique similar to the page cache query-to-filenamemapping technique may be used to map a particular query request to anaming scheme by which data is accessed in the data query cache. Thetechnique for forming this name is described in other sections of thisapplication.

Additionally, data which is stored in the data query cache 850 may becompressed or stored in a particular format which facilitates easyretrieval as well as attempting to optimize storage of the various dataqueries which are cached, as discussed in other portions of thisapplication.

In the following FIGS. 28-30, shown are flowcharts of method steps ofembodiments for performing processing in various components of thepreviously described system of FIGS. 2 and 4.

Referring now to FIG. 28, shown are steps of one embodiment of a methodof processing a request in the system of FIGS. 2 and 4. At step 920, theWebserver engine invokes the Request Router in accordance with the.PHTML MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension). At step 922, theWorker thread as included in the Request Router is initially forwardedthe request for processing. At step 924, a determination is made as towhether or not this request is serviced by this node in accordance withthe information included in the configuration and load files. If, atstep 924, a determination is made that the request is not to be servicedby this node, the request is forwarded to another server node inaccordance with the load and configuration file information. If, at step924, a determination is made that this request is to be serviced by thisnode, control proceeds to step 926 where the Worker thread allocates anavailable parser from the parser queue to process the incoming request.At step 928, the incoming request is passed to the designated parser forprocessing.

Referring now to FIG. 29, shown is a flowchart of one embodiment ofmethod steps as may be performed by the parser. At step 940, the parsedriver of the parser parses the incoming request. In this embodiment,the query request that is parsed is included as a URL parameter that isprocessed by the parse driver. For example, if the query includes syntaxerrors, the parse driver will detect and report out such errors. At step942, a unique file name is determined in accordance with the queryrequest. This filename corresponds to the display results that may beincluded in the page cache. It should be noted that this filename isunique for a particular user query and in accordance with “look andfeel” parameters of the display results. For example, “look and feel”refers to parameters that describe the displayed results, such as numberof business listings displayed in an HTML page, the particular startingpoint of the displayed results with regard to the resulting data set.For a given resulting data set corresponding to a user query, on aparticular type of user display window, 15 items may be displayed. Thesame query performed by a second user from a different display windowmay display 17 items. Thus, the resulting HTML page in both cases isdifferent even though the resulting data set used in forming each of theHMTL pages is different. The page cache may include a different HTMLpage for each of the 15 and 17 item displays.

A determination is made at step 944 as to whether the page cacheincludes the data in the filename determined at step 942. If adetermination is made that the data is included in the page cache by theexistence of the file, control proceeds to step 946 where the data inthe filename is retrieved from the page cache. Control proceeds to step956 where the resulting HTML including the data in display format isdelivered to the user's browser.

If a determination is made at step 944 that the data is not in the pagecache, control proceeds to step 948 where a determination is made as towhether or not there is a PHTML file in the PHTML execution tree. If adetermination is made that the expanded PHTML representation for thisrequest is included in the PHTML execution tree, control proceeds tostep 950 where the expanded PHTML representation is retrieved. Controlproceeds to step 954 where portions of the PHTML file are executed inaccordance with the user query to obtain data to produce the resultingHTML page by invoking the Query engine for data results. The dataresults are returned to the parse driver that creates a resulting HTMLfile returned to the user's browser at step 956. Additionally, it shouldbe noted that the resulting HTML file may be cached in the Page cache inaccordance with predetermined criteria, as previously described. Theresulting HTML file is communicated directly to the user's browser. If adetermination is made at step 948 that the PHTML file is not in thePHTML cache, control proceeds to step 952 where the PHTML file isretrieved from the PHTML file storage and subsequently expanded. Theexpanded PHTML file is stored in the PHTML cache. Control proceeds tostep 954, which is described above.

Referring now to FIG. 30, shown is a flowchart of the method steps ofone embodiment for performing query engine processing. At step 962, thequery engine receives an incoming request, as forwarded by the parsedriver in step 954. At step 964, the data is retrieved for the “normal”search results as appropriate from the data query cache, or using analternate technique. Details of this step are described in more detailin following paragraphs describing the use of the data query cache.Generally, “normal” search results refers to the resulting data setformed by business listing data associated with a well-definedgeographic area. In addition to “normal” search result data are othersearch result data that may not be associated with a single well-definedgeographic area, such as virtual businesses in the Internet. These othersearch results that may not be associated with a single well-definedgeographic area are described in more detail in paragraphs relating tothe data query cache and its use. At step 966, other search data inaddition to the “normal” search data may be retrieved and integratedinto the resulting data set. At step 968, the result data set isformulated in accordance with the user query request, such as displayingresults in a particular order or beginning at a particular point. Atstep 970, the resulting data set is returned to the parse driver forformatting in a display format in an HTML file.

In this particular embodiment, the Standard Industry Classification(SIC) may be used to indicate various name categories and synonyms.These various name categories and synonyms are produced, for example, bythe extraction routines which produce the markup files, as used in thisparticular embodiment by the information retrieval software. Othertechniques may be used to facilitate name categories, and equivalentsthereof, for searching in other preferred embodiments.

It should generally be noted that in the various descriptions includedherein, certain portions of the data storage, such as the imagerepository 840, are updated on an incremental change or delta basis.Other preferred embodiments may have different thresholds or techniquesto update various data stores included in the Front End Server 804.These techniques may vary with implementation.

The architecture described in FIGS. 2 and 4 is a highly optimized,distributed, fault tolerant, collaborative architecture. The primarypurpose of this architecture is to support a high volume of searches,which may be performed for example, through the Internet. In thisparticular embodiment, the databases may include business information,such as for specific businesses or classifications of businesses.Additionally, data queries may be performed based on characteristics ofthe various businesses, such as location, name, or category.Furthermore, the architecture described herein supports a flexiblepresentation of these businesses, based on business agreements andservice offerings. The architecture described herein uses varioustechniques and combinations to achieve high performance whilemaintaining flexibility and scaleability.

The architecture as depicted in FIGS. 2 and 4 includes a set of fullyredundant server nodes in which each node is capable of responding toany search request. Each server node communicates with all the othernodes, as previously described, establishing the health and availabilityof each server node. Incoming requests are classified by each node, asrouted by the hardware router, using a classification scheme held incommon and by consensus. The nodes agree to a disjoint partitioning ofrequests to each of the server nodes in which one server node willservice a set of classes of requests that no other node will generallyservice. A number of complimentary techniques, including Subsumption andHighly Redundant Caching, may be then used to adapt a particular node toa particular class of requests. Thus, the latency for request servicingby that node decreases as additional user queries are performed for eachparticular class of requests.

Adaptive techniques, as those performed by the Front End Server 804, maybe most effective when dealing with repeated requests or queries similarto those previously performed. Based on the adaptive techniques usedherein, an initial search request may be the most costly in terms ofsystem resources and search time. Therefore, other techniques are usedin conjunction with the adaptive techniques to further facilitateperforming an optimal query in response to a user request. For example,common term optimization (CTO) is one technique which is used thatgenerally takes advantage of a statistical bias in both submittedqueries and result sets towards particular words or combinations ofwords. By anticipating particular word combinations or precalculatedresult lists that match, the CTO matches the initiating search problem.

In the embodiment described herein, the Front End Server 804 has a dataset domain which includes electronic yellow pages and advertisingrequiring a high degree of flexibility in the presentation of data. Datais generally presented using the look and feel of business partners ineach business listing which may have distinct requirements forpresentation. Additionally, new modes of data presentation may bedefined on a monthly basis requiring updates to large numbers of datastored in the back office component in the primary and secondarydatabase. To support flexibility, the architecture described usesseveral techniques that also support performance requirements of theparticular data domain in this embodiment and application. Generally,techniques such as the generic object and the generic presentationlanguage may be used to facilitate rapid introduction of new servicesand additional presentation data in a variety of forms to a user.

Additionally, in the embodiment described in FIGS. 2 and 4, each servermay be fully redundant, and there are two additional servers that aredesignated database servers which have additional supporting softwareand hardware for facilitating database access. Other embodiments of theinvention may include additional configurations of servers and databasesin their particular implementation.

While including concepts and techniques described herein, for example,the different databases and packages commercially available which may beused, as known to those skilled in the art, vary with the type of dataaccess using searches to be performed. In this particular embodiment, arelational database structure is used to store and retrieve informationin the Front End Server 804. Other embodiments may include additionaltypes of database storage using other commercially available packages orspecialized software which facilitate each particular application.

[Generic Objects]

The PHTML files 844 that are provided to the parse driver 858 arescripts that direct the parse driver 858 to perform queries, view theresults of queries, and provide information to the browser 824. In apreferred embodiment, the PHTML files 844 are expanded into the PHTMLexecution trees 846 the first time the parser 866 accesses the PHTMLfiles 844. The parse driver 858 accesses the PHTML execution trees 846during operation in a manner described in more detail below.

The scripts that are stored in the PHTML files 844 may include commandsthat are interpreted by the parse driver 858, C++ objects that areexecuted, blocks of HTML code that are provided by the parse driver 858to the browser 824, and any other appropriate data and/or executablestatements. The PHTML scripts perform operations of objects in a waythat is somewhat independent of specific attributes of the objects andthus, as described in more detail below, provide a generic mechanism fordisplaying and presenting many types of objects. The PHTML scriptsinclude conventional commands to include other files (such as otherPHTML files), conditional files/text inclusion commands, switchstatements, loop statements, variable assignments, random numbergeneration, string operations, commands to sort and iterate onattributes/fields of an object according to aspects thereof, such as thename, and logging values to files. The specific syntax used for thePHTML scripting commands is implementation-dependant but includesconventional key words (such as “if” and “then”) and conventionalarrangements of parts of the various types of statements. As describedin more detail below, the scripts provided in the PHTML files 844 areused to construct the PHTML execution trees 846 that control theoperation of the parse driver 858.

Each business listing may be represented as a document stored in theprimary and secondary databases 812, 814. The documents may bemanipulated as generic objects. As discussed in more detail below,representing each business listing as a generic object facilitatessubsequent handling of the business listings.

Referring to FIG. 5, a table 400 illustrates data storage for aplurality of denormalized objects in the databases 812, 814. Thedifferences between normalized and denormalized data is discussed inmore detail elsewhere herein. The denormalized data format is optimizedfor fast performance while, perhaps, foregoing some storage compaction.

A plurality of rows 402, 404, 406 represent a plurality of denormalizedgeneric objects, each of which corresponds to a business listing. Aplurality of columns 412, 414, 416, 418 represent various attributes ofthe denormalized objects. In a preferred embodiment, the first attribute412, corresponds to an identifier for the objects 402,404,406 and thusidentifies a particular listing. Each of the attributes contains anumber of fields and contains descriptor information identifying thetype, size, and number of fields.

Attributes may be added to the normalized objects, or only to a specificsubset thereof. A denormalized representation of any one of the objects402, 404, 406 contains the same number of attributes as any of the otherone of the objects 402, 404, 406. This allows the denormalized objectsto be transferred from the primary or secondary databases to the datamanager 864 in a string format wherein each object can be identified.Accordingly, if values for a new attribute are added to only a subset ofthe objects, then the other objects, outside the subset, will contain anull value or some other conventional marker indicating that theparticular attribute is not defined (or contains no data) for theobjects in question. For example, assume that a new attribute 420 isadded. Further assume that the new attribute 420 only contains valuesfor the object 402, but is not defined for the objects 404, 406. In thatcase, data space for the attribute 420 is still added to thedenormalized version of the objects 404, 406, but no value is providedin the attribute 420 for the objects 404, 406.

Referring to FIG. 6, a table 430 represents data stored in the genericobject dictionary 860 corresponding to results of a search queryprovided by the query engine 862 or from the data query cache 850 in thecase of a previous search having been performed. In the table 430, it isassumed that a search returns a plurality of objects corresponding to ncategories and up to m listings for each of the categories. Theannotation o_(jk) means the object corresponding to the jth category andthe kth listing. In the case of the table 430 (and thus the genericobject dictionary 860), the objects may be object identifiers. Forexample, the field 412 may correspond to an object identifier of each ofthe objects 402, 404, 406. As discussed in more detail below, the parsedriver 858 uses the table 430 provided by the generic object dictionary860 along with the PHTML execution trees 846, to provide specific HTMLcode from the parse driver 858 to the browser 824 of the user 802.

Referring to FIG. 7, a diagram illustrates a portion 440 of the PHTMLexecution trees 846. The portion 440 is constructed using the scripts inthe PHTML files 844 and consists of a plurality of nodes correspondingto the decision points set forth in the PHTML scripts and a plurality ofC++ objects and HTML pages that are executed and/or passed to thebrowser in response to reaching a node corresponding thereto. Thus, forexample, a node 442 can correspond to a PHTML if-then-else statementhaving two possible outcomes wherein one branch from the node 442corresponds to one outcome (i.e., the conditional statement evaluates totrue) and another branch from the node 442 corresponds to anotheroutcome (i.e., the conditional statement evaluates to false). Such astructure may be implemented in a conventional manner given a scriptinglanguage such as that described above in connection with the PHTMLlanguage. That is, implementing such a tree structure using a scriptinglanguage is straightforward to one of ordinary skill in the art usingconventional techniques in a straightforward manner.

Representing the documents (business listings) of the databases 812, 814as generic objects facilitates modifying the documents, or a subsetthereof, without modifying the parser 866. For example, if an attributeis added to some of the objects, then it is only necessary to modify theobjects (schema and data) that will contain that attribute and to alsomodify the PHTML files 844 to include new scripting to handle that newattribute. The scripting may include statements to determine if theparticular attribute exists for each object. For example, suppose thebusiness listings were in black and white and then color was added tosome of the listings. The color attribute could be added to some, butnot all, of the objects only in normalized form. Once the new colorattribute has been added, the denormalized versions of all of theobjects would contain a data space for the attribute, but the objectsthat do not possess a color attribute will have a null marker. The PHTMLfiles 844 can be modified to test if the color attribute is available ina particular object (e.g., to test for a null value) and to performparticular operations (such as displaying the color) if the attributeexists or, if the attribute does not exist for a particular object,displaying the object in black and white. In this way, the colorattribute is added to some of the objects without modifying the parser866 and without modifying existing objects that do not contain theattribute.

For each query that is presented to the query engine 862, the queryengine 862 determines whether the query is found in the data query cache850 or whether it is necessary to perform a query operation using theVerity software (discussed elsewhere herein) and the term list 836. Ineither instance, the results of the query are provided by the queryengine 862 to the generic object dictionary 860 in a form set forthabove in connection with the description of FIG. 6. The parse driver 858and PHTML execution trees 846 then operate on the generic objectdictionary 860 to determine what data is displayed to the user by thebrowser 824. In some instances, the PHTML execution trees 846 mayrequire the parse driver 858 to obtain additional data from thedatabases 812, 814 through the data manager 864. For example, ininstances where the categories corresponding to the retrieved documents(business listings) are displayed, the PHTML execution trees 846 maycause the parse driver 858 to obtain information from the generic objectdictionary 860 that identifies each category and the number of listingcorresponding to each category. Then, the portion of the PHTML executiontrees 846 may cause the parse driver 858 to use the data manager 864 toaccess additional information from the databases 812, 814, such as thenames of the categories corresponding to the category identifiersprovided in the generic object dictionary 860.

Referring to FIG. 8, the parse driver 858 is shown in more detail. Aninstantiator 452 creates the PHTML files 844 and constructs the PHTMLexecution trees 846 from the PHTML scripts the first time the PHTML isinvoked by the parse driver 858. Instantiation includes reading thePHTML files and constructing trees, such as that shown in FIG. 7, basedon the PHTML scripts provided in the PHTML files 844. As discussedabove, constructing such trees from a scripting language is generallyknown in the art.

An interpreter 454 accesses the PHTML execution trees 846 and, based onthe information provided therein, provides HTML data to the browser 824and/or executes a C++ object. The interpreter 454 also accesses aconfiguration file 456 and a state file 458 which keeps track of thestate of various values during traversal of the PHTML execution trees846. The interpreter 454 also receives other data that is used totraverse the PHTML execution trees 846 and to provide information to thebrowser 824. The other data may include, for example, data from the datamanager 864 and data from the generic object dictionary 860. The statedata 854 includes information such as the number of iterations (in thecase of an iterative loop), the values of various environment and othervariables from the PHTML execution trees 846, and the values of othervariables and data necessary for performing the operations set forth inthe PHTML execution trees 846.

The technique disclosed herein relates to a new data type whichabstracts the data interpretation from the data typing by using dataschemas. A novel approach is the use of this data typing for rapidservice deployment in search engines for advertising services on theInternet. For example, new presentation types may be introduced by anadvertiser due to the large number of possible ways to present data to auser. An advertiser may wish to change the information displayed when auser performs a query that results in displaying information regardingthe advertiser's business. If there are tens of thousands of advertiserswhich perform this task on a monthly basis, this implies a very highrate of new presentation types which an online advertising service mustbe able to accommodate. Use of this generic data type in GTE Superpages™provides a flexible and efficient approach to incorporate theseadditional and new presentation types for large numbers of advertisers.

Generally, this technique provides for rapid integration of new datatypes without requiring recompilation or code changes in source codewhich uses instances of data that include the additional data types.This provides for the flexible and efficient introduction of datachanges.

The generic data typing is optimized for performing multiple dataoperations by providing a small subset of possible operations oraccesses upon any data of the generic data type. Therefore, these smallsubset of operations which are known may be optimized wherever there isa data access, for example, within the parser. This is in contrast to anon-generic data typing scheme which requires the introduction of a newdata type and additional associated access patterns. In a non-genericdata typing scheme there is an unlimited and unknown number of accesspatterns for which optimizations must be performed on an ad-hoc basis asnew data types are introduced. Thus, when a new data type is introduced,the possible accesses need to be analyzed and optimized. In addition,the technique described herein provides for denormalized, flat,representations of the objects that facilitate rapid and efficienthandling thereof.

The parse driver 858 uses a data schema description to interpret thevarious data attributes and fields of the generic data objects.Generally, the abstraction of the data interpretation into the dataschema description enables different components of the parse driver tooperate upon and use generic data objects without having thesecomponents require code changes or recompilation due to the introductionof new presentation types. Components which need to know the details ofthe generic data object, such as the parse driver 858, to performcertain functions, do this on a per component basis by using the dataschema description to interpret a generic data object. This insulatescode from the introduction of new presentation types which arerepresented as the generic data objects.

[Query Cache and Request Allocation]

When performing the routing of particular requests, such as dataqueries, existing systems may perform request routing to a particularserver in a distributed computer system without reference to certainavailable factors, such as an initial partitioning of the entire domain,or an assumption that data queries will be cached in a data query cacheand subsequently reused for additional searches. Generally, using theconcepts which will be described in paragraphs that follow, the largerthe number of queries that are performed when routed to a particularnode in accordance with an initial allocation scheme, the quickersubsequent searches on this same particular node may be performed due tothe use of the data query cache.

This embodiment relates to concepts that may be included in a variety ofapplications. One embodiment that includes these is the GTE Super Pageson-line Internet tool that may be used to perform data queries. As anexample, consider using this tool to perform an on-line query of allFrench restaurants within thirty (30) miles of Boston. Generally, GTESuper Pages performs this query returning search results to an on-lineuser. Concepts which will be described in paragraphs that follow may begenerally used and adapted for use in querying any search domain.

A worker thread classifies a request and performs query partitioning inaccordance with the URL information. For example, this may include datafrom the query request such as a specified state, zip code, or areacode. The request router 854 receives an incoming request as forwardedby the hardware router. Within the request router 854, FIG. 4 isgenerally machine-executable code which embodies the concepts of anadaptive and partitioning scheme with regard to routing requests. Use ofthis technique allows for high performance search optimizations thatleverage and ensure server node adaption to a particular class ofrequests. The technique of adaptive query partitioning generallyincreases the performance in terms of high throughput and low latencywhere queries include Boolean search terms. This search optimizationtechnique may include three components: query partitioning, highlyredundant caching, and subsumption.

Query partitioning is the strict classification and routing of aparticular query based on its input term characteristics to a node or aparticular set of nodes. This information is stored in the variousconfiguration and load files, as described in other sections of thisapplication. Query partitioning ensures that any adaption a nodeundergoes based on the characteristics of queries that it processes ismaintained. Specific nodes may serve specific query partitions. Cachingand result set manipulation techniques may then be used on eachparticular node to bias each particular node to the query partition towhich it has been assigned.

Highly redundant caching is generally a technique that trades storagespace against time by storing result sets along with subsets of theseresult sets. The highly redundant caching technique generally relies onthe fact that the search time to locate an existing result is generallyless than that amount of time which would result in creating the queryresult from a much larger search space.

One highly effective set manipulation technique, referred to assubsumption, is especially important in the adaption of a particularnode. Subsumption is generally the derivation of query results fromprevious results, which can be either a superset of the requested resultor subsets of the requested result. Subsumption is also the recognitionof the relationship between queries and the determination of the shortedderivation path to a result set. That derivation may be the compositionof several subsets resulting in a superset, or the extraction of asubset from a recognized result set. In subsumption, the presence of anadditional conjunctive (“and”) search term corresponds to the formationof a subset from the superset described without the additional term. Thepresence of an additional disjunctive (“or”) search term corresponds tothe identification and composition of existing subsets each described byone of the disjunctive clauses.

Consider the following example of the use of the data query cache andsubsequent searches which use a subset of the data stored in the cache.For example, suppose the first request results in a query of all of therestaurants within thirty (30) miles of Boston. This query data isplaced in the data query cache. A second request results in a query ofall the seafood restaurants within thirty (30) miles of Boston. Thesecond request is routed to the same node as the first request inaccordance with loading configuration files, for example, as shown onFIG. 4. The second query is performed quickly by using the data querycache information and searching for a subset of the cached dataindicating restaurants within thirty (30) miles of Boston for a subsetof this first search data which indicates seafood restaurants.Subsequently, this second request query data which indicated all theseafood restaurants within thirty (30) miles of Boston is also stored asa separate data set within the data query cache.

It should generally be noted that the data included in the data querycache is placed in nonvolatile storage such that if the node were tobecome unavailable, data from the data cache may be fully restored oncethe node resumes service.

The composition query also uses the data in the data query cache. Acomposition query may generally be referred to as one which is acomposition of several queries, for example, when using severalconjunctive search terms. For example, a request of all the Frenchrestaurants in Massachusetts, Texas and California is a compositionquery that may reuse any existing cached data from previous queriesstored individually regarding restaurants in Massachusetts, Texas andCalifornia. A composition query is generally determined by the ParseDriver, and the request router decides to which server node 808-810within the Front End Server the composition query is sent for processingin accordance with domain weights of the configuration file.

Consider the following Configuration File information based upon theprevious composition query:

DOMAIN SERVER DOMAIN WEIGHT MA 1 1000 TX 1 2000 CA 2 4000The Request Router may route the composition request to either server 1or 2. If the request is routed to server 1, data may be cached regardingMA and TX for reuse and a new query may be performed for the CAinformation. If the request is routed to server 2, data may be cachedfor reuse regarding CA and new queries performed for the MA and TXinformation. The Request Router, based on the weights, sends the requestto server 2 since the cost associated with performing the MA and TXqueries is less than the cost of performing the CA query.

In the above caching scheme, a particular domain is associated with aparticular server node upon which data query caching is performed fordesignated domains. The domain and server weights reflect the costassociated with processing a request on each node using the data querycache. Accordingly, routing a request in accordance with these weightsresults in faster subsequent query times for those requests.

Reallocation of the requests when a server is unavailable is performedwith a bias toward the initial allocation scheme as indicated by theConfiguration File. There is an assumption that reallocation is on atransient basis and that the initial allocation scheme is the one to bemaintained. Consider the following server nodes (M1-M4) and the domainsinitially allocated to each node as indicated below:

Domains D1 and D2 allocated to node M1.

Domains D3 and D4 allocated to node M2.

Domains D5 and D6 allocated to node M3.

Domains D7 and D8 allocated to node M4.

At a first time, node M1 becomes unavailable and the routers reallocateDomain D1 to node M2 and D2 to node M3. At a second time, node M2 alsobecomes unavailable. Domains D1 and D3 are reallocated to node M3 inaddition to domains D5 and D6. Domain D4 is reallocated to node M4 inaddition to domains D7 and D8. At a third time, node M1 is restored andnode M2 is still unavailable. Domains D1 and D2 are reallocated to M1 inaddition to Domain D3. Domains D5, D6 and D4 are allocated to node M3.Domains D7 and D8 are allocated to node M4. There is a bias towardrestoring the initial allocation scheme when a node becomes available.This bias contributes to faster subsequent query times upon re-entry ofa server node due to the use of the data query cache, and routing ofsubsequent requests to the particular nodes in accordance with thisbias.

In paragraphs that follow, described are data query caching techniquesas may be used in conjunction with the foregoing described requestrouting techniques.

Referring now to FIG. 33, shown is an example embodiment of a flowchartof method steps for performing a data query. At step 200, adetermination is made as to whether a data set in the data query cachecorresponds to the current query being made. If so, control proceeds tostep 202 where this data is retrieved and used by the query engine informulating the query results that are displayed to the user. At thispoint, the processing stops at step 216.

If a determination is made at step 200 that no data set in the dataquery cache corresponds to the current query being made, controlproceeds to step 204 where parents of the data query are determined. Inthis embodiment, parents of the current query are determined by droppingone of the terms. For example, if the query being made is for “MA ANDRESTAURANTS AND FLOWERSHOPS”, each of the three terms is sequentiallydropped to form all combinations of two possible terms. In thisinstance, the set of parents is the following:

-   -   MA AND RESTAURANTS    -   MA AND FLOWERSHOPS    -   RESTAURANTS AND FLOWERSHOPS        It should be generally noted that in this embodiment, a search        is made for only the parent terms. Similarly, other embodiments        may go further in searching for results in the data query cache        by also forming grandparent terms, as by dropping two terms.        This process can be repeated for any number of terms being        dropped and subsequently determining if any data sets in the        data query cache correspond to the resulting terms.

At step 205, a determination is made as to whether data results in thedata query cache correspond to any of the parent terms. If not, controlproceeds to step 212 where a closest ancestor may be used as a basis forstarting to form the resulting data set. In one embodiment,preprocessing insures that ancestor-based geography exists. In oneimplementation, that ancestor is a Verity term list associated with aparticular state. This implementation uses API calls to retrieve thedata identifiers corresponding to the resulting data to be included inthe query results.

If, at step 205, it is determined that there are one or more data setsin the data query cache that correspond to one or more of the parentterms, control proceeds to step 206 where a cost is associated with eachparent. One embodiment associates a cost with each parent term inaccordance with the number of listings of each parent term. This mayalso be normalized and used in a percentage form by dividing the numberof listings in the parent domain by the total number of listings in thequery domain. This percentage represents the probability of a businesslisting belonging to the parent data set appearing in the database.Control proceeds to step 208 where the parent with the minimum cost ischosen as the starting data set for formulating the data results. Atstep 210, the minimum cost derivation sequence is applied to produce theresulting data query. Generally, the minimum cost derivation sequence isobtained by operating upon the least probability terms first.

It should generally be noted that in other embodiments in which otherextended parentage thresholds are used, such as grandparents, thedetermination of the start data set in step 208 may be the data set withis closest in terms of parentage and with the least number of listingsin the data set. The proximity in parentage is the primary ranking basisand the number of listings being secondary in determining ranking.

Referring now to FIG. 34, shown is a diagram of one example used in step210 for determining and applying the best derivation sequence. In thisexample, the query is for MA AND RESTAURANTS AND FLOWERSHOPS. Asrepresented in state 230, it has been determined that MA is the startingdata set which is located in the data query cache. In this example, theparentage has been extended to grandparents, and MA has been determinedto be the first ranking data set in terms of parentage and number oflistings in the data set. At this point, control proceeds to one of twostates, 232 representing “MA AND RESTAURANTS”, or 234 representing “MAAND FLOWERSHOPS”. The state to which control is advanced dependsgenerally on choosing the path with the minimum associated cost at eachstep. In this instance, the number of elements in the data sets“FLOWERSHOPS” (state 234) and “RESTAURANTS” (state 232) may beconsidered in determining cost. If the number of elements in FLOWERSHOPSis less than the number of elements in the data set RESTAURANTS, controlproceeds to state 234 where each business listing in the data setFLOWERSHOP is examined to determine if it is also in MA. The resultingdata set forms the set of all business listings in MA AND FLOWERSHOPS.In contrast, if the number of elements in the data set RESTAURANTS isless than FLOWERSHOPS, state 232 is entered and similar searching of thedata set is performed. From either state 232 or 234, control proceeds tostate 236 where searching of the data set elements is performed toproduce the final resulting data set representing “MA AND RESTAURANTSAND FLOWERSHOPS”. Generally, the approach just described is to advanceto the next state which has the minimum cost associated until the finalresulting data set is determined.

It should also be noted that some of the determination of data sets asused in performing queries may be done as preprocessing to partition thedata sets. For example, in one embodiment, the data is partitioned bystates. The adaptive techniques as described with regard to the GTESuperpages application described herein include partitioning the datasets based on geography, particularly within each state. In thisinstance, particular server nodes are designated as primary queryservers based on geographic location by state. Additionally, as part ofthis partitioning of requests, the data query caches and term lists ofidentifiers are also partitioned according to state. In this embodiment,this partitioning is done as a preprocessing step prior to servicing arequest in that the identifiers are formed and placed on each dedicatedserver node. Similarly, other data partitioning may also be performed aspart of a preprocessing step. Generally, this partitioning may bedetermined based on expected data queries and data sets formedaccordingly, for example, by examining log files with recorded dataquery search histories to determine frequently searched categories orcombinations of categories.

A query request, as made by a user, is generally the combination ofboolean operators and search terms. In this embodiment, the general formof a term in a query request is:

key=value

in which the “key” represents some category or search term, such asSTATE. “Value” represents the value which this key has in thisparticular query. With regard to the previous example, “S=MA” mayrepresent the query term STATE=MA. Key-value pairs or terms may bejoined by the logical boolean AND operation, represented, for example,as “&”. The logical boolean OR operation may also be represented, forexample, by another symbolic operator such as a “,”. For example, whenlooking for either cities of ACTON or BOSTON, this may be representedas:

T=ACTON,BOSTON

The number and types of “keys” varies with embodiment. For example, inthis embodiment, keys include: (T) City, (B) Business Listing, (S)State, (R) Sort Order, (LT) Latitude, (LO) Longitude, and (A) Area Code.In this application, for example, LT and LO may be used to calculatedata sets relating to proximity searches, such as restaurants withinthirty (30) miles of Boston.

The Data Query Cache 850, in this embodiment, generally includes a “hot”and “cold” cache. In this embodiment, the caching technique implementedis the LRU (Least Recently Used) policy by which elements of the cacheare selected for replacement in accordance with time from last use.These and other policies are generally known to those skilled in theart. Generally, the “hot” cache may include the most recently used itemsand the cold cache the remaining items. In this embodiment, each of thedata query caches and other caching elements as depicted in FIG. 2, maybe fast memory access devices, as known to those skilled in the art,used generally for caching.

It should generally be noted that in this particular embodiment, the“hot” cache is implemented as storing the data in random access memory.This may be distinguished from the storage medium associated with the“cold” cache representing those items which are determined, inaccordance with caching policies such as the LRU, to be least likely tobe accessed when compared with the items in the hot cache which aredetermined to be more likely to be accessed.

In this embodiment, a double ended queue structure is used to storecached objects, but other data structures known to those skilled in theart may be used in accordance with each implementation.

Data sets that are stored in the data query cache and page cache eachcorrespond to a particular search query. In other words, a mappingtechnique may be used to map a particular query to corresponding data asstored in the data query cache and the page cache. Generally, thismapping uniquely maps a data query to a name referring to the data setof the data query. In this embodiment, this allows quick access of thedata set associated with a particular query and quick determination ifsuch a data set exists, for example, in the data query cache.

Referring now to FIG. 35, shown is a flowchart of an embodiment of thesteps for forming a name associated with a data set, as may be stored inthe data query cache or page cache. At step 240, a subset of query termsis determined such that a string representing a particular query isuniquely mapped to a name corresponding to a data set. In thisembodiment, the subset of keys that are used in mapping a stringcorresponding to a query to a name of a data set include:

-   -   Proximity, City, State, Street, Zip, Category, Category        Identifier, Business name, Area code, Phone number, Keywords,        and National Account.

Generally, “Proximity” represents the proximity in physical distanceto/from a geographic entity, such as a city. “City”, “State. Street”,“Zip”, “Area Code’, “Phone Number”, and “Business Name” represent whatthe keys semantically describe as pertaining to a business listing.“Category” represents a classification as associated with each business,such as representing a type of business service. “Category Identifier”is an integer identifier representing a category id. “Keywords” indicatean ordering priority for the resulting data set. “National Account”represents a business or service level parent-child relationship wherethe national account indicates the parent. An example is a parent-childrelationship between a parent corporation and its franchises.

At step 244, a query string corresponding to a particular user query isformed using the original string as formed, for example, by the Parserof FIG. 2. The query string includes only those terms which are includedin the subset as identified in step 240. If the original string does notinclude an item that is in the subset, for example, since the user querydoes not include the item as a search term, that item is omitted informing the query string corresponding to the data set. At step 248,this query string is used to determine if a data set is located in thedata query cache that corresponds to the current user query request. Inthis embodiment, the data sets each correspond to a filename. Thus, alookup as to whether a data set corresponding to a particular user queryexists may be determined by performing a directory lookup, for example,using file system services as may be included in an operating systemupon a device which serves as a fast memory access or other cachingdevice.

It should be noted that this technique may be used generally within theSuperpages Front End Server and Backoffice to form unique names thatcorrespond to particular search terms. For example, one embodiment mayinclude services for operating upon the original query string as formedby the Parser to produce parents and grandparents of the terms includedin a query when performing the method steps of FIGS. 33 and 34 if thereis no exact data set match in the data query cache. This may provide theadvantage of insulating other code, such as in data encapsulation, fromknowing the internal structure of the query string. Generally, as knownto those skilled in the art, this is a common programming technique tominimize code portions from changes in data types and structures tominimize, for example, the amount of recompilation when a new data typeis introduced or existing data type modified. Other techniques, such ashashing, may be used to generate a unique identifier for the inputstring, as known to those skilled in the art.

It should be generally noted that a similar mapping technique is used informing a Page Cache name. The technique used is as described forforming the Query Cache filename with additional qualifying terms inaccordance with the “look and feel”, such as display features, used toproduce the Page Cache name. For example, if the displayed resultingHTML page includes 15 listings/page, the Page Cache name includes aparameter in forming the name uniquely identifying the filenameincluding the result set for a query in this particular display format.

Generally, in this embodiment, the data query cache includes cacheobjects in which each cache object corresponds to a particular cachedquery resulting data set. Referring now to FIG. 36, shown is a blockdiagram of one embodiment of a data set as stored in the data querycache. Generally, each data set 250 includes header information 252 andinformation corresponding to one or more business listings. Generally,header information may include information describing the data queryset, such as the number of business listings in the data set. Othertypes of information may be included in accordance with each particularapplication and implementation.

Each business listing 254 generally includes information that describesthe business listing. More particularly, this information includes datathat is cached as needed by other components in the Front End Server,for example, in performing various searches, data retrieval, and otheroperations upon data in accordance with functionality provided by theembodiment. In this instance, the following types of fields ofinformation are stored for each business listing 254:

1) number of categories associated with this business listing

2) latitude

3) longitude

4) business name

5) city

6) state

7) list of categories associated with this business listing

8) database key or identifier used as an index into the databases

9) relevance information

10) advertiser priority

In the above fields, relevance information is Verity-specificinformation as it relates to the query. For example, this generallyrepresents the frequency of words or terms in a document. The advertiserpriority indicates a service level that may be used in presentingbusiness listings, for example, in a particular order to a user. Forexample, if a first advertiser purchases “gold” level advertisingservices, and a second advertiser purchases “silver” level advertisingservices, when a user requests only 15 listings to be displayed, the“gold” level advertisements may be displayed prior to the otheradvertisements by other advertisers, such as the “silver” level servicepurchaser. Thus, a higher level of service may guarantee anadvertisement be placed earlier in the displayed results.

The technique used to store the data in the data cache from memoryincludes object serialization and deserialization techniques, as knownto those of ordinary skill in the art. These techniques transform aninternal storage format, as may be stored in random access memory, to aformat suitable for persistent storage in a file system, as in the dataquery cache. The complementary operation is also performed frompersistent storage to the in-memory copy. For each of the above-namedfields, object serialization, i.e., from memory to persistent storagedevice in cache, is performed by storing the data type, its length, andthe data itself. It should be noted that the length may not be neededfor each data field, for example, in fixed length data types. Thecomplementary operation of object deserialization is generally performedby reading the fields in the same order as written to the cache.

In this embodiment, other caches may have other storage techniques. Forexample, the Page Cache may be implemented as HTML files in a filestructure located on a disk or other storage device. The PHTML executiontree may be implemented as an in-memory linked list or other abstractdata structure representation of the C++ objects.

It should be noted that in this particular embodiment, the data querycache may include different types of cached geographical data as may beused in performing different data queries. For example, the type of datacached described in the prior paragraphs is the “normal” businesslisting data as associated with a well-defined geographic area. Otherbusinesses, for example, such as a florist or an airline, may not beassociated with a single well-defined geographic location. A businessmay not have any geographic bounds, such as if it is an Internetbusiness with a virtual storefront accessible on the Internet. Also,other businesses may be located in a particular well-defined geographicarea, such as an airline with a physical presence in a particular city,but the service area which corresponds to the service offered does notcorrespond to the location of the business itself. To include businesseswith these particularities, in addition to the “normal” business listingjust described in which the geographic business location and serviceareas correspond, the concepts of multi-city and total-city placementshave been included in this embodiment.

Generally, multi-city placement may be described as representing abusiness' service area in multiple cities when data queries areperformed. An example may be a plumbing service located in three (3)cities with service areas in ten (10) cities. The total-city placementmay generally be described as representing a business' service area inall cities when searches are performed. An airline is generally anexample of this which services all major U.S. cities. Generally, in thisembodiment, the total city and multi-city search results are cachedseparately from the “normal” query results, but are composited with thenormal search results prior to retrieving the data from the database.

It should generally be noted that in this embodiment, the total andmulti-city query results are retrievable independent of the “normal”search results. However, the storage format for this information, inthis embodiment, may be as described for “normal” query results.Generally, other embodiments may use a different format for storage thanthe “normal” search results, for example, if other information is deemedto be important in accordance with each implementation.

The technique of performing the total and multi-city query searchoptimization in conjunction with the normal query caching will bedescribed in paragraphs relating to FIGS. 37 and 38 that follow.

Referring now to FIGS. 37 and 38, shown is a flowchart of an embodimentof a method for integrating total-city and multi-city cache results into“normal” cached search results. At step 260, a total-city cache namecorresponding to the data query is formed. In one embodiment, the totalcity cache name is formed by starting with the string “SCOPE=T” toidentify a total-city name. Additionally, the following information isextracted from the original query string, as formed by the parser:

category, category id, business name, street address, keywords,longitude, latitude

These key-value pairs are extracted from the original query string andappended to the “SCOPE=T” to form the total-city cache name. In oneembodiment, these functions of extracting the information from theoriginal query string and forming the total-city cache name may beperformed by the same software as forming the name for the data querycache “normal” query name, such as by API calls to the same routineswith parameters, as known to those of ordinary skill in the art ofprogramming.

At step 262, it is determined if the total-city query data setcorresponding to the total-city cache name for the current query exists.If it does, control proceeds to step 264 where the total-city data setcached item is moved to the hot cache, if not all ready in the hotcache. A reference to this data set is saved for later retrieval inother processing steps. If at step 262, a determination is made that thetotal-city query cached data set corresponding to the total-city cachename does not exist, control proceeds to step 266 where a search isperformed for the total-city query. At step 268, the search results arecached, as in the “hot” cache. A reference to these search results arestored for use in later processing steps. Generally, an empty or nullsearch results stored in cache may be just as important for performanceas a non-null search results that is cached.

Control proceeds to step 270 of FIG. 38 where a multi-city cache name isconstructed representing the multi-city cache corresponding to thecurrent data query. In one embodiment, this multi-city cache name may beconstructed by forming a string using the same fields extracted from theoriginal data query string as formed by the parser in conjunction withforming the total-city name. Similar to forming the data query name forthe “normal” cached search results, the string corresponding to thecached data set for a given query uniquely identifies the data set. Informing the multi-city cache name, appended to the concatenatedkey-value pairs is a string of “SCOPE=M rather than the string“SCOPE=T”, as with the total-city cache name.

At step 272, a determination is made as to whether there is multi-citycached data corresponding to the current multi-city cache name. If, atstep 272, a determination is made that such a data set exists in themulti-city cache, control proceeds to step 274 where the data is movedto the “hot” cache, if not all ready located there. Additionally, areference to this location in the “hot” cache is saved for use in laterprocessing steps. If, at step 272, a determination is made that such adata set does not exist in the multi-city cache, control proceeds tostep 276 where a search of the database is performed. The query results,if any, are cached in the “hot” cache with a reference to the resultssaved for use in later processing steps.

At step 280, the total-city and multi-city data cache results areintegrated with the “normal” query results. After the “normal” query isperformed, but before sorting the search results, the total-city-cachedresults, if any, may be combined with the “normal” query results. Ifthere are no total-city cached results, the multi-city results may beincluded, if any.

The combined search results are then sorted such that any redundantlistings are removed. Any additional processing is performed, as inaccordance with the user query, for example, as producing the listingswhich begin with “B”, or only listing the top ranked fifteen (15)listings as ranked in accordance with other user specified criteria.

In all the caches, a garbage collection technique may be included toremove or delete cached objects that have been determined to be “old” inaccordance with predetermined criteria. For example, in one embodimentusing the LRU caching scheme, whenever the amount of free cache spacefalls below a threshold level, the garbage collection routine isinvoked. The threshold level includes parameters relating to apredetermined number of cache objects and the accumulated size of theobjects in the cache. In this embodiment, although there may be multipleconceptual caches, such as the “normal” data query cache, the multi-citycache, and the total-city cache, the cached results may physicallyreside in the same “hot” and “cold” caching devices. However, in thisembodiment, the different types of caching results may be accessedindependent of the other caching results. Other embodiments may haveother organizations of the caches in accordance with otherimplementation and associated data requirements.

[Information Retrieval]

A variety of information retrieval techniques may be used to retrieverecords stored in the Primary Database 812. Further details of the queryengine 862 are presented in schematic format in FIG. 39. When the parsedriver 858 of the parser 866 of one of the servers 808 delivers a parsedinstruction to the query engine 862, the query engine 862 may, in anembodiment of the invention, include information retrieval software 908to retrieve records from the Primary Database 812 that correspond to theuser's query. The query engine 862 may include more than one form ofinformation retrieval software. For example, the query engine, inaddition including the information retrieval software 908 that is to beused to obtain listings in response to user queries, may further includebanner ad retrieval software 909 for retrieving advertisements thatrelate to the user's query.

In an embodiment of the invention, the information retrieval software908 may include functionality of software such as the Information ServerVersion 3.6 software commercially available from a company known asVerity. Other commercial packages of information retrieval software areavailable, and the techniques described herein could also be employedusing proprietary software coded by the user. In an embodiment, theinformation retrieval software 908 includes the Information ServerVersion 3.6 software and additional extensions provided by the host ofthe GTE Superpages system.

Referring to FIG. 40, steps by which the information retrieval software908 obtains results are set forth in a flow chart 83. The informationretrieval software 908 may at a step 82 access markup language files906, as depicted in FIG. 25, which are produced by the extractionroutines 902 from the normalized data 900. In an embodiment, the markuplanguage files consist of business listings that are stored in thePrimary Database 812. The information retrieval software 908 may then,at a step 84 produce term lists 836 that are further used by theinformation retrieval software 908 to handle queries that are deliveredto the query engine 862. The term lists 836 may consist of a linked listfor each term that appears in one of the business listings, with theelements of the linked list including a document identifier for thebusiness listing and certain statistics regarding the frequency ofoccurrence of the particular term in each document and in the documentset as a whole. The banner ad retrieval software 909 may similarlygenerate and use banner ad term lists 837 that are further used by thebanner ad retrieval software 909 to handle generation of appropriatebanner ads. Next, at a step 90, the term lists, which in an embodimentare generated using Verity software, may be expanded at a step 86 toinclude synonyms for the terms appearing in the business listing. Forexample, if the term “diner” appears in a business listing, then theterm “restaurant” might be assigned to the file for that businesslisting as stored in the Primary Database 812. The expansion of thelistings to include synonyms of the words included in the listings maybe accomplished by execution of PHTML scripts or other programmingtechniques. The expansion may establish a hierarchical structure; forexample, the term “restaurant” may be stored in a tree that includes thesub-category of “ethnic restaurant,” which may further include thesub-category “greek restaurant.” PHTML scripts may be provided toestablish the tree structure and to operate on the tree structure toretrieve results that will be provided to the user. The steps 82, 84 and86 may be accomplished at initialization of the system, thusestablishing and expanding the term lists 836, 837 for later use.

Once the system is initialized, the system may operate to obtain resultsthat are to be displayed to the user. The steps for obtaining resultsmay be seen in a flow chart 88 displayed in FIG. 41. Referring to FIG.41, the parse driver 858 may at a step 20 parse a user query and deliverthe parsed query in suitable form for handling by the query engine 862.The query engine may include the information retrieval software 908. Ata step 22, the query engine 862 may operate the information retrievalsoftware 908 to take the parsed user request and expand the query,turning the user request into a detailed query. Next, at a step 24, theinformation retrieval software may operate on the expanded term lists836 by identifying documents associated with the terms identified in theexpanded query. In an embodiment, the term lists 836 are the businesslistings described in connection with steps 82, 84 and 86 above,expanded to include synonyms and terms that are determined to be relatedto the words in the business listing. Identification of documents may beaccomplished by a variety of information retrieval techniques. Documentsmay also be associated with queries by sorted relevancy ranking,clustering (automated grouping of related documents), automateddocument, summarization (creation of content abstracts, not simply thefirst few sentences of the document) and query-by-example (turning anindividual document into a query in order to retrieve “more documentslike this”). These functions may be accomplished by software techniques,such as having a table of pointers having as an argument a tokenizedversion of each possible term from the expanded user query from the step22. The table of pointers may point to the location of a term list 836for each such term. The term list may be a linked list of documents thatinclude the term. The linked list may include information about eachdocument, such as the number of occurrences of the term in the document,the inverse frequency of the term in the entire set of documents, theassociation of the document with other documents, the association of thedocument with categories, and the like.

A variety of different techniques can be used to index documents forinformation retrieval. In embodiment, an indexing architecture such asthat provided by Verity allows for incremental indexing, so that onlynew, updated or deleted documents require changes, avoiding the need fora complete re-index each time a document changes. Online identifiers maybe provided, so that searches can continue while the identifiers aremodified. This function is also provided by the Verity software.

At a step 28 a variety of weighting algorithms can be used to rankdocuments identified in the step 24 according to the information storedin the term lists 836. For example, a simple weighting algorithm mighttake a single term query, such as a category of information, and rankeach document in a term list 836 in numerical order according to theproduct of the term frequency (the number of times a term appears in thedocument) and the inverse document frequency (the inverse of the numberof times the term appears in the entire document set).

Once the documents are ranked, at a step 30 a list of the rankeddocuments may be further processed by the information retrieval softwareto provide a results page. In particular, at the step 30, theinformation retrieval software 908 may determine categories into whichthe retrieved documents fall. In an embodiment, the categories areyellow pages categories, which have been previously assigned to thedocuments, which are business listings, prior to entry of the businesslistings in the Primary Database 812. Thus, at the step 30, theinformation retrieval software 908 determines what categories areassociated with the business listings retrieved by the ranking at thestep 28. Next, at a step 98, the information retrieval software 908 maycompare the categories identified at the step 30 to the terms in theuser query. If categories are present that do not include any of theterms in the user query, then, at a step 92, such categories may bediscarded. Thus, the user will not retrieve categories that areunrelated to the user query. Such categories might otherwise appear, forexample, if the information retrieval software 908 retrieves a businesslisting that is associated with two unrelated categories, only one ofwhich is relevant to the user query. For example, a query for arestaurant might retrieve a listing for “Joe's restaurant and bowlingalley.” The information retrieval software 908 might then retrieve thecategories “restaurants” and “bowling” that would have been associatedwith that listing. The “bowling” category would be discarded, becausethe user query for a restaurant is unrelated to the “bowling” category.The term comparison may use an expanded version of the terms in thequery and in the categories. Thus, a category would not be discarded ifit includes a synonym of a query term, even if the category does notinclude an exact term match.

Once the non-matching categories are discarded at the step 92, theinformation retrieval software may, at a step 94, determine whetherthere are any remaining categories. If not, then control proceeds to astep 96, at which the user is informed that there are no matchingcategories. The user may then be returned to the query screen. If, atthe step 94, at least one category remains, then, at a step 98, theinformation retrieval software determines whether there is more than onecategory. If not, then at a step 100 the system may display the actualbusiness listings that appear in that one category to the user. If atthe step 98 it is determined that more than one category remains, thenat a step 102 the system may display a results page that consists of alist of the remaining categories. The results page may further includean indication of the number of listings that are associated with eachcategory.

The document identifiers established for information retrieval software908 may maintain pointers to other documents or to sources of thedocuments, such as URLs or file names. Thus, the identifiers may bestored apart from the documents allowing separate, non-invasive use ofthe identifiers, while maintaining the integrity of the data.

[Common Term Optimization (CTO)]

In an embodiment of the information retrieval system disclosed herein,common terms may be identified in order to optimize the retrieval ofinformation in cases where user queries employ such terms.

A series of steps may be performed as pre-processing operations in orderto classify and establish query result sets for common queries.Referring to a flow chart 31 in FIG. 42, at a step 32 common terms maybe identified prior to system initialization. Designation of commonterms may be performed based on a number of different factors. Forexample, a single word might in theory be designated a common term, ifit appears with a high frequency in result sets obtained by users. It isnoted that a single word common term may offer relatively little benefitin search efficiency, because the term lists 836 already permitsearching based on individual terms. Alternatively, common terms mightconsist of multiple word combinations of any length, whether bi-grams,tri-grams, or n-grams. Thus, words that co-occur in high frequency canbe designated as common terms, such as in a bi-gram format. For example,the bi-gram “Boston-restaurant” might be designated a common term.

Next, at a step 33, terms may be linked to specific contexts; that is,terms may be designated or classified as common terms in part accordingto their context. For example, the term “Boston,” might be considered acommon term if entered in the “city” field, but it might not beconsidered a common term if entered in a “business name” field or a“category” field. Similarly, the term “restaurant” might be a commonterm in the “category” field, but would not be considered a common termin the “city” field. Thus, at the step 33, the common term sets may bestructured to reflect context. Thus, the bi-gram “Boston—Restaurant”might be stored as an expanded form that reflects both the term and thecontext in which it is to be treated as a common term, for example“City=Boston; Category=Restaurant.”

Referring to FIG. 42, it may be desirable to expand, at a step 35, theterms that are to be designated as common terms. Thus, each term mightbe expanded to include both synonyms for the term and other terms thatare semantically related to the common term in the established contextfor the term. For example, the common term “category=restaurant” mightbe expanded to cover results in which synonyms for restaurant areincluded in the results, such as “diner,” “bar and grill,” “eatery” andthe like. Similarly, a city term might be expanded to include suburbs orneighborhoods; thus, the term “City=New York” would be expanded toinclude “City=Brooklyn,” “City=Queens,” and “City=Manhattan.” Note thatthe synonyms for a given term might be different depending on thecontext. For example, the term “Dorchester” might be a related term for“City=Boston,” but it might not be a related term for “businessname=Boston.”

The pre-processing steps 32, 33 and 35 might be accomplished in adifferent order, and other steps might be included in embodiments of theinvention. Once common terms are identified, linked to contexts, andexpanded at the pre-processing steps 32, 33 and 35, it is possible toestablish lists or identifiers at a step 46 that include the expandedcommon term n-grams. One way of dealing with common term combinationswould be to generate in advance term lists 836 that are predicted to beused with some frequency (e.g., restaurants, Boston, New York, etc.) andto pre-calculate the intersection of the likely combinations. Thisapproach requires substantial processing and would have to be performedfrequently, given frequent changes in the identifiers. Instead, it ispossible, at the step 46 to create special identifiers, or term lists836, that represent the expanded common terms, as linked to theircontexts. Thus, a term list 836 might consist of a linked list ofdocuments, such as business listings, that contain the terms “Boston”and “restaurant,” (or synonyms thereof) in the contexts in which thoseterms are common. The term lists 836 may, like other term lists 836described elsewhere herein, may further include information as to theterm frequency of each term, synonym or related term, and the inversedocument frequency of the term, synonym or related term in all documentsin the set. In an embodiment, the synonyms and related terms may beincluded in the actual business listings that are used to generate termlists 836, so that those listings will be included in the generation ofcommon term lists. In an embodiment, the listings themselves may beclassified as to common terms and synonyms or related terms of thoseterms. Listings may be further classified as to sub-contexts, dependingon the search context. Listings using identical terms should also beincluded in term lists, because they use identical token identifiers forsuch terms. For example, the term “Boston” should be understood in anationwide search to include listing in both Boston, Mass. and Boston,Ky., because the token for the term “Boston” will be the same in eachcase. Result sets must be identified as tokenwise semantically relatedto the classifications that are possible in a search. Results are thusclassified into common term groups on a listing-by-listing basis.

At a step 48, the common term lists 836 for combined terms can be storedin a designated area of the primary database 812, front end server 804,or server node 808-810 that allows a rapid search in the event commonterm combinations are included in the user query. The common term listsare thus assigned to a special results area for common term searches.

The steps 46 and 48 may be performed upon initialization of the system.Thus, with the pre-processing steps 32, 33 and 35 and the initializationsteps 46 and 48, result sets are established for common term searches,and the result sets are stored in a special location in memory for rapidretrieval.

Next, at a step 49, query rules may be established that directappropriate user queries to the special location in memory establishedat the step 48. Referring to FIG. 43, the user might enter a query on atemplate 34 that is displayed as a page, such as markup language page,on the user's browser 824. The template might include fields 36, such asa category field 38, a business name field 40, a city field 42 and astate field 44. When the user enters a term into one or more of thefields 36 and initiates a query, such as by pressing “enter” on thekeyboard or clicking the appropriate screen location, the query isdelivered to the parser 866 of the server 808 to which that user hasbeen routed. The query is then used, as described above in connectionwith FIG. 41, to retrieve documents. In an embodiment of the invention,the documents that are retrieved at the step 28 and displayed at thestep 30 of FIG. 41 are a set of matching categories for the query. Forexample, as depicted in FIG. 44, if the user enters the category “artsupplies,” the information retrieval software 908 may retrieve a set ofmatching categories that relate to art supplies. The retrievedcategories may be ordered alphabetically, by order of significance, orgrouped by sub-categories. The user then may select categories among thematching categories to receive either further sub-categories ordocuments, such as advertisements or other markup language pages, thatcorrespond to the categories. In an embodiment, rather than matchingcategories, the information retrieval software 908 may immediatelyretrieve matching documents, such as specific advertisements or othermarkup language pages, rather than categories of documents. This directretrieval step may be accomplished, for example, when one of theuser-entered categories is an exact match to one of the categoriesincluded in the term lists 836.

A similar series of steps takes place if the user enters a query for aparticular location in the city field 42 or the state field 44, or for abusiness name in the business name field 40. The information retrievalsoftware 908 retrieves documents from the term lists 836 that correspondto a ranking of an expansion of the user-entered query.

When both a category and a location or a business name, or all three,are entered by the user, then the information retrieval software 908may, in a conventional manner, retrieve term lists 836 that correspondto each of the terms of the query, such as a list corresponding to thecategory “restaurant” and a list corresponding to the city field“Boston.” The information retrieval software 908 could then perform anintersection of the two sets and perform a ranking of the relatedcategories (e.g., Italian restaurants in Boston, French restaurants inBoston, etc.) or related listings (for specific Boston restaurants).Because the term list 836 for documents containing the term “Boston”(including all businesses in Boston) and the term list 836 for documentscontaining the term “restaurant” (including all restaurants, nationwide)are both very large, the processing involved in retrieving each list andperforming an intersection in order to identify matching categories ordocuments can be substantial. Accordingly, it is desirable to reduce theprocessing involved.

The information retrieval software 908 may be programmed with queryrules at the step 49 to recognize when a query includes a common termn-gram, such as “City=Boston; category=restaurant.” That is, whatevercommon terms are identified at the pre-processing steps 32, 33 and 35should be recognized by the information retrieval software 908, so thatqueries that use the common terms in the appropriate contexts (orsynonyms or related terms in those contexts) are designated for specialprocessing. In particular, the information retrieval software 908 may beprogrammed to execute the search for the user's query in the specialarea of memory that was established for storage of the special commonterm lists 836 at the step 48 of FIG. 42.

In one embodiment of the invention, referred to as “CCC-indexing,” thecommon terms that are selected for combined common term lists andspecial storage are bi-grams in the form “City=xxx; category=yyy” and inwhich the most common categories, such as restaurants, are found in thecategory field and the largest cities, such as New York, Boston, and thelike, are found in the city field.

[Data Integration]

Referring now to FIG. 45, shown is one embodiment of the databaseincluded in the Backoffice component as included in FIGS. 2 and 4.Generally, data updates included in the database come from threedifferent sources in this particular embodiment. One source is on-lineupdates, as provided by users making updates or entering new informationfor business listing via network connections through the Backofficecomponent as through the Front End Server. A second source of dataupdates is based on foreign source updates. Generally, foreign sourceupdates are those update records which come from a different data sourcethan the original existing database. A third type of data integration orupdate source is referred to as a native source update. Generally, anative source update is when an updated version of the existing databasehaving the same source as the existing database is provided. Forexample, a database copy may be provided as an update on a monthly basisusing full sets of data where a data provider provides an updatedversion of the same data set. The native source data integrationprocedure integrates those changes in the new data set into the existingdatabase. This is in contrast to a foreign source update, for example,where the existing database is provided by one vendor, and the updaterecords for example, are provided by a different vendor. The updatevendors being from a foreign source are called foreign source dataintegration or updates.

It should be noted in this particular embodiment that the native sourceupdate records are provided using full sets of data. In other words, theexisting database is a complete database. The native source updates areprovided in the form of a complete database as opposed to only providingupdate records. The foreign source update records are generally recordsobtained from a source different from the working database and aremerged into the existing database.

Shown in FIG. 45 is a native source update database 1500 which isintegrated into the unfiltered database 1504. Generally, this is done byperforming comparisons of the records of the native source updatedatabase 1500 and the unfiltered database records 1504 in determiningthe various types of operations that need to be performed to integratethe changes from the native source update into the unfiltered database.This will be described in more detail in paragraphs that follow.Applying data enhancement techniques to the unfiltered database, theserecord changes are integrated into the working database 1508. Generally,the unfiltered database 1504 is a complete version equivalent to theworking database. However, the records included in the unfiltereddatabase 1504 generally include raw data which has not had the benefitof the data a enhancement techniques as applied to the working databaserecords 1508. The on-line update records 1506 and the foreign sourceupdate records 1510 are integrated directly into the working databasecopy 1508. It should generally be noted that the foreign source updaterecords 1510 are integrated or merged into the working database records1508 by applying data merging techniques that will be described in moredetail in paragraphs that follow.

It should also be noted that the denormalized data, as included in theBackoffice component and the Front End Server, include in thisparticular embodiment, three tables or components of data. Generally,the three components of data include a category file, a fact file, and abusiness listing file. The business listing file has been previouslydescribed in conjunction with the architecture in other sections of thisdescription. The fact file includes information additionally provided byvarious advertisers or business services which are generally static innature. For example, the fact file may contain information such as hoursof operation and extra attributes such as brand names or productsproduced by a business. This file generally does not change withupdates. The third file is a category file may include a categoryidentifier and a corresponding heading. Generally, the categoryidentifier is a numeric quantity or other identifier that may be used inperforming queries. The heading is a textual description of the variouscategory identifiers which may be used either for performing dataqueries. In the various data integration and updates, as will bedescribed in paragraphs that follow, it should be noted that thebusiness listing file is generally what is updated when considering thetechniques which will be described. However, the category file is alsoupdated as part of the native source update, as will also be describedin paragraphs that follow.

In paragraphs that follow describe general integration techniques forthe foregoing types of data updates. Each of these techniques which willbe described is associated with one type of data integration. However,in other preferred embodiments, each technique may be associated withand applied to other data types.

The foreign source update will be described in paragraphs that follow.However, the concepts and techniques included herein may also be appliedto different types of data updates.

Generally, in the description that follows for data entries, there isone existing record or data entry per business listing. In thisparticular embodiment, a business listing is the atomic unit ofgranularity by which updates are performed. Any information and datasuch a phone number, name and address associated with a particularbusiness entity is considered to be part of one logical piece ofinformation or record. Thus, in the descriptions that follow, updatesare made with regard to the information associated with one particularbusiness listing or entity.

The techniques which will be described regarding the foreign sourceupdate generally assume that an existing database and update records areprovided, and that each originate from different or foreign sources. Itshould generally be noted that since the sources are different, there isno general assumption made as to particular data fields or the structureof the foreign records as compared to the existing database. It is firstdetermined whether there is a matching entry in the existing databasefor an entry in the updated version of the database. If no match isfound in the existing database for an entry or business listing whichappears in the updated version of the database, this new entry is addedand integrated into the existing database. The techniques which will bedescribed in paragraphs that follow may be adaptable, as known to thoseskilled in the art, to update situations in which an implementation usessomething other than two complete sets of data when performing a systemupdate.

In this embodiment, this process of foreign source update is performedin the Backoffice component 818 in which the existing database to beupdated is generally in normalized form. The updated version of thedatabase may be in normalized or denormalized form. Depending on theform, additional processing steps, as known to those skilled in the art,may be needed to retrieve and update the actual files that include thedata, for example, associated with a particular business entity orrecord. In the description below, the described technique assumes thateach business listing generally includes the following data items:business name, zip code, and at least one of a primary phone number ortoll-free phone number. Generally, the foreign source integrationtechnique is based on the premise that a phone number and zip code of abusiness are sufficiently unique to significantly reduce the matchingproblem to comparisons of a few listings.

In paragraphs that follow, a determination is trying to being made as towhether entries in the update and existing database match to furtherdetermine if update records are to be added, or if existing databaserecords are to be deleted or modified.

Generally, the matching technique described for foreign source updatedetermines a correspondence between the foreign source update records1510 and the records in the existing working database 1508. The matchingtechnique generally includes: 1) determining which records in theexisting working database match which update records; 2) if more thanone record in the existing database correspond to the same record in theexisting working database, determining which record in the existingdatabase is the closest match for the update record; and 3) if theforeign source update records include duplicate records such thatmultiple update records correspond to the same set of one or moreexisting database records, collapsing the duplicate foreign sourceupdate records into a single update record that is matched to a singlerecord in the existing database.

After determining which records in the foreign source update correspondto which records in the existing working database, operations aredetermined and applied to the existing working database. Generally, aswill be described, transactions with respect to the existing workingdatabase are determined. Generally, an update to an existing record isperformed so as not to lose any existing information while alsoincorporating the new additional information or updated information. Forexample, an existing listing includes a business name and address, andphone number, but no e-mail address. A foreign source update recordincludes a business name and address, e-mail address, and phone number.The information from the foreign source update record is included in theexisting database in union with the fields that are blank in the updaterecord such that the e-mail address in the existing database is notremoved when the updated information from the update record is applied.It should be noted that in this embodiment, no delete operations areperformed with the foreign source update data integration due to thenature of combining data originating from different sources. However,other embodiments may include delete operations in addition to updateand modify operations in foreign source data integration.

Referring to FIG. 46, at step 1000 a comparison is made between thephone number of an update record and the phone number field of eachentry in the existing database. At step 1000, a determination is made asto whether or not the record in the latest version of the database copyis an 800 phone number. If a determination is made at step 1000 that thephone number of the current update entry is not an 800 number, controlproceeds to step 1008. At step 1008, the procedure “match phone number”is performed to produce a subset of one or more entries of the existingdatabase which match the existing phone number. Control proceeds to step1010 where the procedure “name match” is performed. Generally, “namematch” will be described in paragraphs that follow to determine whetherthere is a business name match for a particular entry. Control proceedsto step 1012 where “derive score” is performed based on the zip code andthe name match score. Generally, the result of step 1012 produces ascore representing a statistic relative to determining whether twoentries in a particular database and an updated version of the databasematch.

After performing step 1012, control proceeds to step 1020 of FIG. 47where a comparison or a determination is made as to whether or not thederived score is greater than 50%. If the derived score is greater than50%, control proceeds to step 1034 where a determination is made whetherthere is only one matching entry in the database for an update record.If a determination is made at step 1034 that there is only matchingentry in the database, control proceeds to step 1042, where adetermination is made that a match has been found. Alternatively, if atstep 1034 there is more than one matching entry in the database for arecord in the current updated version of the database, control proceedsto step 1036, where a determination is made whether there is only oneentry with a maximum score. If there is only one entry with a maximumscore, control proceeds to step 1046, where this maximum scoring entryin the existing database is determined to be the matching entry for theupdated version. If at step 1036 there are multiple entries with thesame maximum score, control proceeds to step 1038 where additionalprocessing is required to determine which is the matching entry, if any.

It should generally be noted that the score threshold of 50% may betuned and varied for each particular implementation and embodiment. Thisvalue is generally a configurable threshold value that may be definedheuristically, for example, by examining data samples.

The processing of step 1038 is generally performed off-line. It may bedone manually or in an automated fashion in accordance with the types ofdata in the existing database. For example, at step 1038, havingmultiple entries with the same maximum score may indicate that there isan error or corruption in data. For example, in one embodiment, analternate technique is used where if any record has the same zip code,that record is considered as being a matching record.

If at step 1020 a determination is made that the score is less than orequal to 50%, control proceeds to step 1022. At step 1022, adetermination is made as to whether or not the difference in the namelength is less than or equal to three. If the difference in the namelength field is not less than or equal to three, control proceeds tostep 1028 where a determination is made in that no matching entry existsin the database. It should be generally be noted that the decisionprocess and the comparison process performed in steps 1020 and 1022 areperformed for each matching entry in the subset as produced from step1008. It should generally be noted that the threshold length of threefor the name length used in step 1022 may be varied and tuned for eachparticular embodiment and implementation.

At step 1022, if a determination is made that there is at least oneentry in the existing database with a name length difference less thanor equal to three, control proceeds to step 1024, where the name editdistance heuristic may be used to compute the name distance. Generally,the name edit distance is the minimum number of insertions, deletions,and substitutions at the character level to turn one name entry orstring into a second name entry or string. The number of states thatstring A must pass through to be transformed into String B is an entryor quantity referred to herein as the name edit distance. For example,the textbook entitled “Text Algorithms”, by Maxime Crochemore andWojciech Rytter generally describe a technique for the name editdistance heuristic.

At step 1024, the name edit distance is computed, for example, usingdynamic programming techniques known to those skilled in the art, suchas using a finite state machine, for each matching entry as in thesubset produced by step 1008. At step 1026, if a determination is madethat there are one or more entries with a distance less than 10% of thelength of the update name string, then control proceeds to step 1100 ofFIG. 52 where a determination is made at step 1100 as to whether or notthere is only one matching entry in the subset as derived from the Step1008.

Referring now to FIG. 52, if a determination is made at step 1100 thatthere is only one matching entry, control proceeds to step 1112, wheredetermination is made that a matching entry has been found. If at step1100 a determination is made that there is more than one matching entryin the existing database for a foreign source update record, controlproceeds to step 1102, where a determination is made as to whether ornot there is only one matching entry with a minimum distance. If adetermination is made that there is only one matching entry with aminimum at a distance, control proceeds to step 1108 where it isdetermined that an entry in the existing database with the minimumdistance is considered a match to the update record in the foreignsource update. If at step 1102 a determination is made that there ismore than one matching entry with a minimum distance, control proceedsto step 1104 where additional processing may be required in accordancewith the types of data included in the database. The additionalprocessing required is generally the same types of processing that maybe performed in accordance with the previously described step 1038 ofFIG. 47.

Referring back to FIG. 46, if at step 1000 a determination is made thatthe phone number of the updated record is an 800 phone number, controlproceeds to step 1002 where a determination is made as to whether or notthe phone number, including the area code, and the zip code match one ormore entries in the existing database. At step 1002, if there is adetermination that one or more entries in the existing database matchthe phone number and zip code of the update record, control proceeds tostep 1006 where a subset of one or more matching entries is found.Control then proceeds to point B indicated at step 1010 in FIG. 46 whereexecution continues.

If a determination is made at step 1002 that the phone number and zipcode do not match any entries in the existing database, a determinationis made at step 1004 that no match exists in the database for thecurrent update record.

Referring now to FIG. 48, shown is a flow chart of an embodiment for the“match phone number” routine as performed at step 1008. At step 1050, atable is used with old and new area codes and exchanges to determine ifthere are one or more matching entries in the existing database whichmatch the phone number of the current update entry. Generally, theprocessing step of 1050 and the decision made at step 1052 may be used,for example, where area codes have changed due to the increased volumeof phone numbers which require additional area codes to a particularlocality to be added. For example, the 508 area code may be expanded toinclude the 781 area code. Thus, an existing phone number may beincluded in the database with either the 781 or the 508 area codedepending on the age of the data in the database. If a determination ismade at step 1052 that either an old area code and exchange, or a newarea code and exchange match, control proceeds to step 1054 where asubset of one or more matching entries is formed. Control proceeds tostep 1056 where control returns to the calling procedure. In thisinstance, control returns to step 1008 where subsequent control proceedsto step 1010 of FIG. 46.

If at step 1052 a determination is made that there is no old or new areacode and exchange in the existing database which match the current entryin the updated version of the database, control proceeds to node C ofthe “secondary search” in FIG. 51 at step 1086. Generally, theprocessing which occurs in the steps of FIG. 51 attempt to find semanticequivalents of the name fields indicating a possible match. At step1086, the name of the update record is tokenized. At step 1088, “stopwords” are removed from the name field. Generally, stop words may bewords which may be ignored when doing a name comparison. For example, inthis particular embodiment, the words “and”, “or”, “the”, “a”, “an”,“to”, “in”, and “at” are considered “stop words” for which a matchingentry may contain any number or combination of these and the matchshould still succeed. Thus, at step 1088, these words are removed andnot considered when performing a name comparison.

At step 1090, a search of the existing database is performed on theconjunction of the tokenized name field components and the zip code.Generally, the search is being performed for entries in the existingdatabase which match zip code and the different components of the namefield. At step 1092, a determination is made as to whether or not thereare more than 5 matching entries in the existing database for thecurrent update record. If at step 1092 a determination is made thatthere are more than five matching entries in the existing database,control proceeds to step 1094 where a determination is made that nomatch has been found. If at step 1092, a determination is made thatthere is not more than five matching entries, control proceeds to pointB in the processing which is shown in FIG. 46, step 1010 where thesename matching entries are used as the subset upon which subsequentprocessing is performed.

Referring now to FIG. 49, shown is a flow chart of the steps of oneembodiment performing a “name match” as part of a routine processing asinvoked from step 1010 of FIG. 46. Generally, the steps of FIG. 49attempt to perform and find semantic equivalents of the names of abusiness in this particular instance. At step 1060, for each entry inthe subset formed by step 1008, the name entries are canonized.Generally, canonization rules are a set of transformations which occur,for example, transforming abbreviations and the like to semanticequivalents allowing for a common denominator of terms to be searchedfor. For example, if all entries in a database use the entire work“incorporated” to indicate an incorporated business, then if a nameentry includes the abbreviation “inc”, this is expanded to the full name“incorporated” prior to being compared. Generally, the precisecanonization rules or transformations depend upon the particular databeing examined in a particular application.

Control proceeds to step 1062 where the name field is tokenized intocomponents. At step 1064, a setwise contents comparison of the namecomponents of each entry is determined against the current update entry.At step 1066, a score is computed for each name comparison of theexisting database entry with a record of the updated version of thedatabase. The score is computed as one point per matching component. Atstep 1068, control returns to step 1010 where subsequent processingresumes with step 1012.

Generally, the processing steps of FIG. 49 attempt to formulate anumeric quantity or metric for determining whether two name entriesmatch. This weighted value or concatenation is used in furthercomparison in combination with other field, such as the zip code, andarriving at a final quantity in determining whether or not name fieldsof an existing database entry and an update record match.

Referring now to FIG. 50, shown as a flow chart of the steps of oneembodiment for performing the routine “derive score”, as performed fromstep 1012 of FIG. 46. Generally, derive score attempts to producenormalized metric or score based on the name field and the zip code. Atstep 1080, the score previously derived from name match for each entryis updated by one if the zip codes of an existing database entry matchan updated entry. At step 1082 this score is normalized by taking thescore computed thus far and dividing it by the number of tokens in theforeign source entry name field. It should be noted that othertechniques may be used to produced a normalized score as in step 1082.At step 1084, control returns to the point of call. In this particularinstance, control returns to step 1012 where processing resumes withstep 1020 of FIG. 47.

Just described with regard to FIGS. 46 through 52 are processingtechniques for determining matching entries for foreign data. What willnow be described are techniques which provide for data enhancementswhere the two databases or two data sources being integrated are fromthe same source. Generally, where there is this native sourceprocessing, there will be fewer differences between the data entries dueto the fact that both data sets come from the same source. Thus, thetechniques which are described in paragraphs that follow may generallybe referred to as data enhancements. However, similar to the processingjust described with regard to foreign source integration and processing,the concepts and processing steps which will be described may be readilyadaptable to other types of data updates in accordance with otherparticular implementation and data sets.

The update techniques for native source assumes that two full sets ofdata are used—the updated database version, and an unfiltered or rawversion 1504 of the existing working database. Generally, the techniquesthat are described below with regard to native source processing aredata enhancement techniques applied to the unfiltered database 1504 toproduce the working database 1508 of FIG. 45.

Referring now to FIG. 53, at step 1400, the computation of the dataupdate is performed using two complete sets of data from native sources.Generally, at step 1400, the latest set of data received such as from adata provider is submitted into the database and compared against theset that is in the existing database. All of the records in the data setare loaded in the following form. For comparison purposes, in the stepsthat follow there is a distinct record ID followed by a string where thestring is all the fields from the record concatenated together forcomparison purposes in steps that follow. In this particular instancerecord I.D.s are unique against the set and indexed. As a result ofprocessing at step 1400, the delta or difference between the two datasets is produced. Each entry in this delta or difference is classifiedas an insert, delete, or update operation. A record is inserted into theexisting database in which identifiers are in the new version of thedata set but not in the existing database. All records which haveidentifiers in the existing database, but not in the new version, areslated for deletion from the existing database. Records in whichidentifiers are in both sets, but, however have associated strings thatdiffer are considered update records having data contents in the stringthat is updated for the corresponding identifiers. At step 1402, theupdate records which include inserts and update transactions are appliedto the existing database. At step 1404, certain data post processing isperformed as will be described further in the paragraphs that follow.

FIGS. 46-54 generally describe data integration of the native sourceupdates which are applied to the database of business listings andcategories. In summary, for both business listings and categories,comparisons are made between records of the native source unfiltereddatabase and native source update.

Referring now to FIG. 54, shown are more detailed steps of oneembodiment of step 1400 involving the computation of the data update aspertaining to the native source business listings previously described.At step 1406 a comparison is made between the existing database copywith the updated database copy by comparing the record identifiers andthe string concatenation which represents the remainder of the records.At step 1410 each update record is classified as one of a matchingentry, an insertion, a deletion, or an update with respect to theexisting database. At step 1416, a record is determined to be matchingif the record identifier and string field in the existing and updateddata base copies match.

At step 1420, a record has been classified as one to be inserted ifthere is a record with a record identifier in the update database whichis not in the existing database. Subsequently, at step 1418, dataenhancements are performed and the record is integrated into the workingdatabase. It should be noted that the data enhancements also performedin step 1428 is described in more detail in paragraphs that follow.

At step 1424, a record has been classified as one to be deleted from theexisting database if there is a record with the record identifier in theexisting database not in the updated database. Subsequently, at step1422, the data operation is performed integrating the data updates intothe existing working database.

At step 1430, a record is considered an update transaction to anexisting record in the existing database if the record identifiersmatch, but the remainder of the record represented as a string does notmatch. Subsequently, at step 1426, the longitude and latitude of arecord may be updated if the address has been modified. At step 1428,data enhancements may be performed to the record, and the data update isapplied to the existing working database as well as the unfiltereddatabase.

In the case of step 1416 where matching entries are found, no furtherprocessing may be required for existing database or the updated databaserecord. However, at steps 1420, 1424, 1430, update records ortransactions are generated to modify the existing database. It shouldgenerally be noted that any of the foregoing operations which aremodifications, including updates and deletions, to the existing workingdatabase records may be conditionally performed in an embodiment of theinvention. A protection or locking technique may be included in thedatabase, for example, which prevents a deletion or modification of aparticular business listing included in the database regardless of theprocessing classifications of FIG. 54.

The data enhancements, as performed at steps 1418 and 1428, aregenerally data filtering steps prior to integrating the data update intothe working database 1508. The data filtering techniques generallyfacilitate matching corresponding records when performing updates. Dataenhancements may include, for example, upper/lower case justification,detection of synonyms and/or acronyms, transformation of abbreviationsas may be used in business names (e.g., corp., inc.), street addresses(e.g., st., pl.), and city and state names. Other embodiments mayinclude other enhancements in accordance with the type of data and thevarious applications.

Referring now to FIG. 55, shown is an embodiment of a method forperforming update computation of step 1400 as applied to the categoryfile. Recall that the category file in one embodiment includes acategory identifier and a corresponding header that is a textdescription of the associated category identifier. It should generallybe noted that these updates are applied in a model similar to that ofthe business listing files for native source updates. The updates arefirst applied to a “raw” or unfiltered version of the category file,followed by data enhancements as appropriate, an then integration of thedata updates into a working copy of the category file included in theworking database 1508.

At step 1460, the current and updated category files are compared interms of identifiers and associated headers. At step 1462, each updaterecord is classified as one of several types of transactions.

At step 1464, a record in the updated category file is consideredmatching if the record identifier and the associated header match anentry in the current category file.

At step 1466, an record is inserted into the existing unfiltereddatabase and working database if the record identifier is not in theexisting unfiltered database copy of the categories.

At step 1468, data enhancements may be performed and the resultingfiltered data further integrated into the existing category file in theworking database 1508. The data enhancements, as included in steps 1468and 1476, are described in more detail in paragraphs that follow.

At step 1470, a record in the existing category file is deleted if therecord identifier of an existing record is not in the updated version.At step 1472, this deletion operation may be performed to the workingcopy of categories included in the working database 1508.

At step 1474, an update record is used to update the database copies ifthe record identifier of an existing an update records match, but theheading names differ. At step 1476, data enhancements are performed andthe update operation is integrated into the working copy of thecategories includes in working database 1508.

The data enhancements, as performed at steps 1468 and 1476, upon thecategory listings may include processing of the headings. For example,the processing to enhance the text of the headings may include texttransformations such as: upper/lower case justification, consolidationof abbreviations, and removal of idiosynchratic and slang terminology.The function of these data enhancements is to generally filter the datato provide more accurate determination of matching or correspondingcategories.

Referring now to FIG. 56, shown are general post processing steps forone embodiment of expanding more detailed steps of step 1404 of FIG. 53.Generally, these steps may be performed to the category file as includedin the working database 1508.

At step 1440, new categories may be added. Generally, a data vendor maynot provide an integrated version of all business categories. It may bepossible to enhance some record categories as additional data is added.For example, a restaurant may be a particular type of category and theremay be other subdata organized in the structure of the record indicatingthat there is a particular type of restaurant in accordance with thevarious ethnic cuisines, such as French or Italian. Post-processing asin step 1440 may be written to search the data file in accordance withrecognized structural format and add additional categories in accordancewith any categories and subcategories. For example, if a determinationis made that there is a large number of restaurants with a subcategoryof French, a new record category may be added which is “Frenchrestaurant”. Similarly, an Italian restaurant category may be added.This is generally performed in accordance with the data organization andcategories of the particular data being examined in each implementation.

At step 1442, redundant categories as stored by business are collapsedand detected by removing the equivalent categories. Generally, at step1442, semantically equivalent categories are determined. Generally, thisincludes locating equivalent categories for which the spelling might beslightly different, or those fields which may be subsets or equivalentsof other fields. For example, “animal doctor” may be interpreted as asemantic equivalent for “vet”, or “veterinarian”. Generally, this stepmay be done in an automated fashion using any programming language whichis commercially available and may be used with the existing database.The technique involves dropping or not including specialnon-alpha-numeric characters or other words, similar to the stop words.White space may be compressed and comparison may be done on a caseinsensitive manner. The comparison may further be done by requiring anexact character match or with some at-a-distance technique similar tothose previously described with other data processing.

At step 1444, the duplicate categories and records may be removed fromthe existing version as stored in the working database 1508.

It should be noted that in general the processing of step 1442 wherethere is a collapse of redundant categories by detecting and removingequivalent categories, different rules may be used to decide whichcategory of several duplicates identified as the one to keep. Forexample, maybe the longest name, the shortest name, or simply the firstname.

Referring now to FIG. 57, shown is a flowchart of one embodiment of amethod of more detailed processing steps of step 1442 for collapsingredundant categories. At step 1520, duplicate categories are determined.A technique for determining duplicate categories is described inparagraphs that follow in conjunction with FIG. 58. At step 1530,duplicate categories in the unfiltered database may be examined as agroup and one of the category names or headings is chosen to be theheading included in the collapsed category record. One technique forchoosing the heading is be determining which category name is mostfrequently used, such as by examining the business listing files forfrequency determination. At step 1534, the business listing files, asincluded in the unfiltered database, may be patched with the new headingand identifier corresponding to the collapsed resulting record. At step1536, the category file is also updated to reflect the collapsed entry.It should be noted that these are made to the existing working database.

Referring now to FIG. 58, shown is a flowchart of an embodiment ofmethod steps for detecting duplicates in the category file. Generally,these steps are more detailed processing steps of step 1520 of FIG. 57.At step 1500, a first category name in the category file of theunfiltered database is tokenized. In other words, each word included inthe heading or category name is associated with a token. Similarly, instep 1504, the next record of a category is examined and also tokenized.At step 1506, a comparison of the two tokenized names is performed toderive a score in accordance with the number of matching namecomponents. This may also be normalized, as described in accordance withthe foreign source update processing techniques. At step 1508, adetermination is made as to whether or not the score is greater than apredetermined threshold. In this instance, the threshold is 75%. If thescore is greater than the threshold, control proceeds to step 1512 wherethe categories are tagged as duplicates propagating any previousmatching identifier tag. In other words, the transitive matchingtechnique is used in marking matching categories. For example, ifID1=ID2. Then, it is determined that ID2=ID5, ID5 is also marked ashaving ID1 as a matching identifier. Similarly, subsequent matches toID5 further propagate the value ID1. Subsequently, control proceeds tosteps 1510 for advancement to the next record. If it is determined atstep 1508 that the score is not greater than the threshold, no match isfound and control proceeds to step 1510 where the next category isadvanced to. At step 1514, a determination is made as to whether all thecategories have been processed in the category file. If they have,control proceeds to step 1516 where processing stops. Otherwise, controlproceeds to step 1504 for further comparisons and determinations ofequivalent categories.

It should generally be notes that various percentages and lengths usedin the foregoing data integration techniques may be tuned or varied foreach particular embodiment in accordance with, for example, the datatype and record lengths. Adaptive tuning of values used in makingdeterminations may be automated, for example, by adjusting thresholds inaccordance with actual data values to filter out extreme data values.

It should also be noted that the category table or file may be used bythe query engine when processing a data query. For example, the categoryfile may be used to identify valid categories specified in a user query.It may also be used to categorize information displayed to a user. Inother words, a resulting data set may be partitioned in accordance withthe categories as included in business listings for the resulting query.For example, if a resulting data set includes 10 listings, theselistings may be categorized or grouped in accordance with whether or notparticular categories are associated with each listing. The informationdisplayed to the user for these 10 listing may be 5 listings included incategory A, and 5 listings included in category B. Thus, when thecategory table or file is updated, the table is propagated as part ofthe update data to the Front End Server and, subsequently, further tothe query engine.

[Multi-Media Data Transfer]

An efficient data transfer technique is used to transfer data betweendatabases, such as between the Backoffice component 818 and the PrimaryDatabase 812 of FIG. 4. In this particular embodiment, the types of datathat are transferred generally relate to advertisements such as thosedisplayed to the user 800 of FIG. 2. Generally, advertisement dataincludes text data and non-text data. The non-text data may be referredto as “blob” data which includes, for example, image and audio data, aswell as machine-executable programs, JAVA bytecode, and the like. Thetechnique, which will be described in paragraphs that follow, generallyuses different data channels depending on the type of data. For example,text data is transferred from the Backoffice component to the Front EndServer 804 using a different data channel than blob data that is alsotransferred between the two components. A sending component may belocated within the Backoffice component 818 which includes software thatdecides the type of data, the channel used to transfer the data, and howto break up the data into portions which are transferred to a receivingcomponent located in the Front End Server 804, such as the primarydatabase 812. Located on the receiving component, as may be included inthe Primary Database 812, is software which decides how to synchronizeor assemble data received from the Backoffice component 818. In thisparticular embodiment, the advertisement data is generally data that isdisplayed in response to a user query.

Generally, the text data included in this data transfer may becharacterized as structured data, as included in text which is displayedto the user. The second type of data generally transferred is denoted as“blob” data which is generally not able to be decomposed or operatedupon in different portions. For example, blob data may include amachine-executable program which is generally binary data type.Generally, the technique uses two separate data channels in which eachchannel transfers a different type of data. In this particularembodiment, one data channel is used to transfer the text data, andDatabase Link™ software, as included in the commercially availableOracle™ database, is used to facilitate database communication of textdata. Therefore the database routines, such as those included in theDatabase Link software, may be used in transferring text data betweendatabases. In this particular embodiment, the Oracle database does notsupport direct non-text manipulation, such as for transferring data ofdifferent types, such as blob data. Therefore, a second different datachannel is used to transfer the blob data from one database to anotherin which the second channel is external to the database since theversion of the Oracle database software used in this embodiment does notprovide the needed support for direct non-text data manipulation. Theblob data, which may also generally be characterized as multi-mediadata, is transferred asynchronously from the text data betweendatabases.

As will be described in paragraphs that follow, the blob data in thisembodiment is copied from one database to another using a C++ programwith calls to vendor-supplied library routines. This is in contrast tothe text data transfer which is done by a separate data channel, and thesoftware used performs remote database copies as if they were local. Inthis embodiment, the text data transfer may be performed by calls to theOracle procedures executed under the control of the Oracle databasesoftware. Generally, the data channels used to transfer both the textand the blob or multi-media data may be network connections between thedatabases. Other types of connections between the databases may also bepossible, such as a dedicated hard line to facilitate databasecommunication, as known to those skilled in the art. As will bedescribed in paragraphs that follow, data is organized and associatedwith a particular advertisement that may be displayed to a user.

FIG. 59 is a block diagram of two tables in a preferred embodimentdepicting one technique for storing the advertisement data. In thisparticular embodiment, the advertisement data and the relation betweenthe different components of the advertisement data are described in twotables stored in the sending databases. Table 1200 is a relationalmapping table which generally describes the relation between the variousdata entities as included in a particular advertisement page. In thisparticular embodiment, as will be described in an example, therelational mapping data describes a parent/child relationship betweenvarious data entities of an advertisement page forming a tree-likestructure. The data table 1220 includes the actual data as described bythe relational mapping table 1200. The data included in the data table1220 includes a variety of data types as may be displayed with regard toan advertisement. For example, the data included in table 1220 may betext data, machine executable code, or a JAVA program. In thisparticular embodiment which uses the Oracle database software, onerestriction is that each row of the data table 1220 may contain at mostone field of blob data. Thus, if an advertisement, in this particularembodiment, requires the use of multiple blob files, they must be storedin different rows of the data table 1220. Other implementations andembodiments may have similar or other restrictions that may effect theparticular organization of the data as required for advertisements orother data displayed to the user. It should generally be noted that thestructure of the tables depicted in FIG. 59 are particular to thisimplementation and embodiment of the invention. Other embodiments of theinvention may include different table structures in accordance withvarious implementation restrictions.

The relational mapping table 1200 includes two columns of data. Thefirst column 1204 is the record ID of the child data entity. The secondcolumn 1206 is the record ID of the parent data entity. The data table1220 generally includes multiple columns depending on how many datafields are required for a particular implementation. In this particularembodiment, a record identifier 1208 is used to uniquely identify aparticular data entity in a table. Also included are data fields data-11210 through data-n 1214 in which each of these data fields includes oneparticular type of data entity as may be displayed to the user inresponse to a data query.

Referring now to FIG. 60, shown is a more detailed diagram of the tablesas used in a data transfer on a sending and receiving side using thisdata transfer technique. Shown in FIG. 60 is an example of a relationalmapping table 1200 which includes multiple advertisement pages. In thisparticular embodiment, one tree-like structure is used to represent oneadvertisement page. As shown in FIG. 60, two tree structures may beproduced using the data described in the relational mapping table 1200.What will be described in paragraphs that follow is the data transfer ofthe advertisement page associated with the root node with the identifier104 which includes identifiers 104, 105 and 106 in its tree-likestructure.

Referring now to FIG. 61, shown is the tree-like structure described bythe relational mapping table 1200 for the advertisement page with theroot node identifier 104 shown in FIG. 60.

Referring back to FIG. 60, on the receiver side of the data transfer,shown are two tables, temporary table 1216, and ad page table 1218. nthis particular embodiment these two tables are created on the receiverside for each advertisement transferred from the sender. In the snapshotof FIG. 60, the two tables of data on the receiver side depict tablesafter the transfer of the ad page with the root node of the identifier101 and prior to the transfer of the data associated with theadvertisement page with the root node beginning with the root node ofidentifier 104. Generally created on the receiver side for eachadvertisement page is a separate ad page table 1218. The temporary table1216 is filled with data during the data transfer and after the data isproperly assembled on the receiver side, the temporary table 1216 is notused until the next data transfer operation. In this particularembodiment, the table ends in a state such that no data from the datatransfer having just occurred is located in the table 1216.

Referring now to FIG. 62, shown is a block diagram of the data on thesender side and the receiver side as associated with the data table 1220previously discussed in FIG. 59. In the example which will be describedin paragraphs that follow involving the data transfer of identifiers104-106, each identifier is associated with only blob data. It should benoted that this general technique and the data included in the datatable 1220 may additionally include text data associated with eachidentifier or row in the table. An entry in the table 1220 may alsoinclude only text data. As previously described in this embodiment, thelimitation is that only one field entry of blob data may be associatedwith each row in table 1220. On the receiving side three tables areassociated with transferring data which is blob data from the data table1220. These three tables include a blob temporary table 1222, a blobtable 1224, and a repository table 1226. It should generally be notedthat any text data included in table 1220 on the sender side may betransferred using the data transfer channel. What is described in FIG.62 is that portion of the data included in the data table 1220 which isblob data. In this example, only blob data is included in theadvertisement page with the root node 104 which will be described.

The blob temporary table 1222 is a temporary table used in the transferof text information associated with blobs from the sending node to thereceiving node. The blob table 1224 in this particular embodiment, is anaggregate blob table which includes the blob data for multipleadvertisement pages. In other words, the snapshot of the data tables ofFIG. 62 shows that data associated with one advertisement page with theroot node identifier 101. After the completion of the advertisement pagewith the root node identifier 104 on the receiving side, the blob table1224 will also include information to retrieve the blob data associatedwith identifiers 104 through 106. It should be noted that the contentsof the blob table 1224 do not include the actual blob data itself.Rather, as will be noted in the description that follows, the fieldsincluded in the blob table 1224 point to and further describe the actualblob data which is contained in the repository table 1226. The blobtable 1224 in this embodiment includes three fields per each entryassociated with a blob data entity. It includes a sending recordidentifier 1228, a size 1230, and a pointer 1232 to the actual blobdata. The sending record identifier 1228 identifies a particular blobuniquely within a particular table or advertising page in thisparticular embodiment. Thus, each of the entries in the recordidentifier column 1228 may not be unique for all of the advertisementpages or data. Rather, the purpose of the record identifier is to map oridentify the particular blob pointer associated with a unique recordidentifier from the sending database. The size 1230 indicates the sizein bytes of the blob described by the blob pointer field 1232. In otherembodiments, the size field may include other units to identify the sizeof the particular blob data. The blob pointer field 1232 acts as anidentifier or pointer into the repository 1226 to uniquely identifywithin the repository a particular piece of blob data. It should benoted that other embodiments or implementations may include additionalfields in the blob table 1224 as well as in the repository 1226 inaccordance with other pieces of data that may be required in order toenable the transfer to occur in a particular implementation.

FIGS. 62 through 66 show the block diagrams of an embodiment oftransferring the data associated with an advertisement from the sendingside to the receiving side. FIG. 63 depicts a snapshot of the tablesassociated with the text or Database Link transfer channel as includedin the sending and receiving sides. The data table 1200 on the sendingside has no modifications from the previously described initial table asdepicted in FIG. 60. However, the tables on the receiving side have beenmodified from those previously described in FIG. 60. In particular, thetemporary table 1216 serves as a temporary placeholder for the datainvolved in the data transfer of the particular ad page describedbeginning with root node identifier 104. Generally, the data associatedwith a particular advertisement page is extracted from the relationalmapping table 1200 and is temporarily copied to and stored in thetemporary table 1216 on the receiving side.

Shown in FIG. 64 are the tables associated with transferring the actualdata from the sending side to the receiving side. The data included inthe data table 1220 is segregated into text data and non-text data. Thetext data is transferred using the text channel. The non-text,multimedia data, or blob data, is transferred using an external processwhich creates a second multimedia data transfer channel in order to senddata from the sending side to the receiving side. In this particularembodiment of the data table 1220, the id and the size fields are copiedto the blob temporary table 1222. Additionally, a global id (Gid) isgenerated on the sending side prior to transmitting these fields to thereceiving side. This global id is transferred to the receiving side andincluded in each associated entry of the temporary table 1222.Generally, the Gid is a unique identifier associated with each recorduniquely identifying the record among all tables associated withdatabase information.

The blob data from table 1202 and the associated information in table1242 are transferred to an external process 1240 located on the sendingside. In this particular embodiment, an Oracle™ pipe is thecommunication means used to transfer the data from the data table 1220to the external process 1240. The external process 1240 furthertransmits the data via a multimedia data channel to the receiving side.Table 1242 may also be viewed as a temporary table which serves as aplaceholder for that data which is transferred by the external process1240 to the receiving side. Located in temporary table 1242 are fourpieces of information including a table name, a field name, anidentifier, and a global identifier associated with each blob dataentity. The table name generally describes or identifies the particulartable within which a piece of blob data is located or associated. Inthis particular embodiment, each table is associated with a particularadvertisement or advertisement name. The field name identifies the typeof non-text data. In this particular embodiment the field name is “Blob”referring to blob or multi-media data. The identifier field (Id) oftable 1242 is the unique record identifier copied from table 1220. Theglobal identifier (Gid) is a unique global identifier, identical to thatwhich is produced on the sending side prior to sending the text data tothe temporary blob table 1222. This information is passed or transferredto the external process 1240 which copies the actual blob data to thereceiving side as well as the additional information described intemporary table 1222.

It should be noted that in this particular embodiment, the externalprocess 1240 is a C++ program with library calls to facilitate thetransfer of data between the databases. However, it should be noted thatthis is an external process with regard to the database. In other words,in this particular embodiment the facilities used to transfer the datafrom the sending side to the receiving side are external with respect tothe database. In this particular embodiment, “external” generally refersto the fact that the external process 1240 executes outside of theOracle process space. Certain tasks must be performed by the externalprocess in order to transfer the data from the sending side to thereceiving side. For example, the external process must connect to eachof the databases in order to access and transfer the data. This is incontrast to the Database Link or text channel which is internal to thedatabase and no such connections are implied. In other words, theroutines which perform the data transfer of the text are internal to thedatabase and data copying, for example, in this embodiment, is performedbetween remote databases as if they were local copies. The precise wayin which both the text and blob data transfers are performed withinother preferred embodiments may vary with implementation and facilitiesavailable for communication and data transfer.

It should also generally be noted that the external process may copyblob data from multiple tables in which the associated field name maydiffer with each table. Therefore, the field name may also be includedin table 1242. The external process uses this field name to retrieveblob data to be copied. Other embodiments may communicate this fieldname using other mechanisms.

The external process 1240 uses the data included in the temporary table1242 to fetch or access the blob data associated with a particular tablename and field name to subsequently index into each particular tablename using the identifier to extract the actual blob data. This blobdata is copied to the repository table 1226 on the receiving node byprocess 1240. In FIG. 64, the repository table 1226 includes the blobdata associated with advertisement identifier 104. This data is appendedto already existing data in the repository 1226.

It should generally be noted that the transfer of the text data througha first data channel and the transfer of the blob data through analternate or second multi-media data channel are performedasynchronously. When the receiving side has determined that all of thenecessary data entities associated with a particular table oradvertisement have been transferred successfully to the receiving side,the process of assembling the data into the advertisement page begins.It should also generally be noted that the data described in tables 1224and 1226 are functionally equivalent to the data stored in table 1220.For example, table 1224 includes a blob pointer field which acts as anindex into the repository table 1226, whereas table 1220 includes theactual blob data in a field. Thus, the use of the blob pointer field intable 1224 which acts as an index into the repository table 1226performs the same function as the actual data in the blob data field ofthe data table 1220.

What will be described in conjunction with FIGS. 65 and 66 is theintegration process of the tables of the text and the blob data for theadvertisement page identified by the sending identifier 104. Referringnow to FIG. 65, shown is a block diagram of an embodiment of the tablesresulting from the text data integration. In particular, table 1200 onthe sending side remains the same as in previously described figures. Onthe receiving side, table 1216 data has been integrated and copied intothe table 1218. The function of temporary table 1216 is generally tohold that text data associated with the relational mapping table whichis transferred from the sending side to the receiving side until all ofthe data entities associated with the particular advertising page ortable being transferred have arrived on the receiving side. At thispoint, the data integration on the receiving node begins. The softwareon the receiving side performs a state integration process. Thepreviously described task of integrating the data from temporary table1216 into table 1218 is one such task performed by this integrationsoftware.

Referring now to FIG. 66, shown is a block diagram of an embodiment ofthe data table 1220 whose contents have been transferred to thereceiving side. The assembling software on the receiver side integratesthe data from temporary table 1222 into table 1224. Additionally, a linkis established in table 1224 to the data in table 1226 and theassociated global identifier removed. Each entry in table 1222 is copiedinto table 1224. In particular, the Id and Size fields are copied intotable 1224 for identifiers 104, 105, and 106. The integration softwarethen uses the global Id obtained from temporary table 1222 to index intothe repository 1226 in search for a matching global identifier entry.When a matching global identifier is found in table 1226, the repositoryId from table 1226 is copied into the blob pointer field (Blob Ptr) oftable 1224. Subsequently, the global Id in table 1226 for thecorresponding entry is reinitialized to an empty field. The resultingtable 1226 shows this process as repeated for each entry in thepreviously described table 1222 from FIG. 64.

Referring now to FIG. 67, shown are method steps of one embodiment forassembling the blob data into the repository table. The steps describedin FIG. 67 generalize the method previously described in conjunctionwith FIGS. 64 and 66 wherein the data shown in FIG. 64 is integrated andassembled into the tables on the receiving side resulting in those asdisplayed in FIG. 66. Generally, at step 1250, the record identifier andtable size are copied from the temporary blob table to the blob table.At step 1254, the global identifier from the temporary blob table isused as an index into the repository table to finding a matching globalidentifier. For this matching entry, as in step 1256, the repositoryidentifier is copied from the repository table to the blob pointer fieldof the blob table. At step 1258, the global identifier field of therepository table is reinitialized. The end result of performing thesteps as described in FIG. 67, result in the tables as displayed in FIG.66 representing the integrated or assembled blob table in which the blobdata is integrated into the repository table 1226 as further describedby the blob table 1224. It should generally be noted that the filesresulting from the copying of the text and the blob data as described inFIGS. 65 and 66 have a particular relationship. Generally, the sendingand receiving side for the text data have mirrored files. In thisparticular example, table 1200 and table 1218 are “mirror images” ofeach other. The temporary table 1216 is used in performing the transferas a temporary table until all of the data for this particular datatransfer has arrived on the receiving side. At that point, the data isintegrated from the temporary table into the final resulting table 1218resulting in a table 1218 which mirrors that on the receiving side whichis on the sending side in table 1200.

Regarding the multi-media or blob data on the sending side and thereceiving side, the resulting tables 1224 and 1226, in combination, arefunctionally equivalent to the data described in the sending side intable 1220. In this particular embodiment, one of the reasons for notfurther merging the data of tables 1224 and 1226 is due to the fact thattransferring blob data, including a copy of the blob data from table1226 to be integrated into table 1224, requires the use of an externalprogram in order to compress the tables further. This is due to the factthat in order to perform any transfer of data which is not text, anexternal program, similar to external program 1240, is generally usedsince a version of the database software, as in this embodiment, may notbe capable of copying and directly manipulating non-text data as neededin performing data operations.

The tables which are described in the preceding figures and associateddescriptions may have a different number of entries and fieldsparticular to each implementation of the concepts which have beendescribed herein. What has been described is a flexible and efficienttechnique for performing data transfers. In this particular embodiment,the data transfer is between two databases. The techniques described maybe adapted and used within other applications and a variety ofenvironments.

The overall technique is generally to copy the text and blob ormulti-media data asynchronously on two separate channels. This data iscopied from a first database to a second database. Initially, the datais located on the second database in a temporary location until all ofthe portions of the data associated with a particular data transferarrive at the second database. When it has been determined that allportions of the data have successfully arrived on the second database,the assembly process of copying the data from the temporary locationsand merging the information into other data tables is performed on thesecond database.

Generally, the foregoing technique for data transfer may be used in avariety of applications, such as for the data transfer betweendatabases. In one embodiment, this technique is included in a system foronline Interactive Yellow Pages, GTE Superpages for the publication ofmultimedia advertisement content of GTE Superpages business customers.Generally, the GTE Superpages system includes two major components: theserver component which serves versatile user requests for theinformation of more than 11 million businesses in the United States and(2) the Backoffice component that facilitates advertisement content,creation management and publication. Both these subsystems includedatabases where advertisement business information is persistentlystored. The advertisement content produced or modified in the backoffice is published in the Superpages by virtue of its transfer from thepersistent storage in the back office to the persistent storage in theserver. Generally, the business advertisement includes an integrated setof structured textual information, such as business name, address, andmultimedia or blob data, such as graphics, video, audio, job applets.

The data transfer technique described is generally a technique fortransferring data using two data links between two databases. One ofthese data links is an internal data link with respect to the database,the second data link is an external data link with respect to thedatabase. The internal data link is optimized for the structured textdata transfer while the external one is optimized for the multimediadata transfer, such as the transference of data stored in binary objectsin the database. This technique for data transfer generally alleviatesthe limitations of the existing database technology which does notprovide for the transferring of multimedia objects using the internaldata link. Moreover, by using the two data links to transfer the variousdata types, performance and stability are improved over an alternativeprior art approach which uses only the external link for transferringboth text and multimedia or blob data.

Generally, the transfer technique includes four collaborative processes:a process on a sending component which decomposes data structures andthe like into text and non-text components assigning transient tags tothe non-text components; two asynchronous transfer processes, one perdata type, that each transfer, respectively, text and non-textcomponents to a receiving component; and a process on the receivingcomponent that reassembles transferred data and replaces transient tagswith persistent unique tags.

This technique uses a multimedia data repository cable which is createdand maintained in the receiving component, such as the receivingdatabase in this embodiment. Once the data is transferred, the non-textor multimedia data items are stored in this repository with transienttags. Using the transient tags, the reassembly process correlates thetext tables with the multi-media objects and replaces them withpersistent unique tags, thus leading to the reintegration of thetransferred data.

The previously described technique includes features which provide forefficient decomposition and reassembly of data for efficient datatransfer, as between two databases. Additionally, the multimediarepository serves as a vehicle for the reassembly of decomposed dataitems which are reassembled on a receiving component, such as areceiving database.

[Incremental Update]

In paragraphs that follow, a description is provided of an incrementalupdate procedure as performed upon the various databases included in theFront End Server component 804. The data in the Backoffice component 818may be updated, for example, on a daily basis. These deltas or changesto this database in the Backoffice component are subsequently alsoapplied to the copy of the database in the Front End Server component.It should generally be noted that in this application, as in the GTESuperpages online system, the number of transactions or updates to adatabase ranges from 30,000 to a half a million on a daily basis inaccordance with the required data updates for the existing database.However, the techniques which will be described in paragraphs thatfollow may be applied to different systems with different transactionthroughput and tuned in accordance with each particular implementation.

Generally, this update technique is used to provide data updates forboth native and foreign sources, and on-line updates, as described inaccordance with data processing techniques in other sections of thisapplication.

Generally, data updates to the databases included in the Front EndServer may first be integrated into the Backoffice component.Subsequently, these data modifications may be “pushed” to the Front EndServer and integrated into the various data stores included therein, aswill be further described in more detail in following sections.Generally, in this embodiment, data updates may originate from severalsources, including native and foreign source updates, and on-line dataentry, such as through an Internet connection via a browser. The nativeand foreign source updates may generally be characterized as largerupdates or data integration efforts. These are generally described inother sections of this application. The on-line data entry technique forupdating information that may be included in the Backoffice componentmay be performed as previously described through the menus initiallydisplayed to a user, such as at the GTE Superpages Internet site, thatprovide access to the Backoffice component data information.

The data integration techniques, as related to the foreign and nativesource updates to integrate the data updates into the Backofficecomponent, are generally more detailed and involved than the integrationof the on-line specified modifications. In the former case, the dataupdates may generally be a large number of data modifications requiringmore computer resources than in the latter case. Thus, for example, theon-line modifications may be incorporated on a daily or otherpredetermined time period using some data enhancement techniques asdescribed in other sections of this application. Other data updates mayrequire additional time and computer resources and not be able to becompleted, for example during non-peak usage, such as overnight on adaily basis. Thus, additional planning and different processingtechniques may be used with the various types and volume of data updatesas included each embodiment.

Once the data modifications are incorporated into the Backofficecomponent, the data updates, including the updates to advertisement dataand other data associated with each business listing, may be propagatedto the Front End Server component. The non-text or multimedia data, forexample, as included in advertisements with image files, may betransferred to the Front End Server from the Backoffice using multimediatransfer techniques, as generally described in other sections of thisdescription. The updates to the Primary Database included in the FrontEnd Server may be communicated as a table of commands created in theBackoffice component and transferred, as by a network connection, to theFront End Server. Generally, in this embodiment, the table created inthe Backoffice includes an application developed command languagecorresponding to the various types of record updates and modificationsthat may be included in this particular embodiment. Each of thesecommands may be further translated in the Front End Server into one ormore actual database commands that perform the table operation. Forexample, an entry in the table of database update commands may bespecified as follows:

COMMAND RECORD # OPTIONAL DATA

DELETE 1-5

In this above example table, three fields of data may be included. ACommand field specifies the type of data command. The Record #fieldidentifies which records in the Primary Database this command applies.The Optional Data includes data that may be related to the specifiedcommand. For example, if the command were update, the data field mayspecify the data which is to be included in the records specified. Inthe above example, the command is to delete records 1-5. This singletable command may be translated, for example, by software included inthe Primary Database, into 5 database commands in accordance with theparticular database software. The software which builds the table in theBackoffice and translates the commands into one or more databasecommands may be developed using a commercially available software systemthat is capable of communicating with the underlying database to performthe required operations.

It should be noted also that the entire table may be transferred fromthe Backoffice to the Front End Server, or it may be divided intosections and updates performed for each section. Additionally, eachcommand may be sent as a separate message in other embodiments inaccordance with the number of updates and other associated computerresources and costs for each data transaction. This may vary withimplementation.

Referring to FIG. 31, shown is an embodiment of a dependency graph forperforming the various processes in an incremental update. At step 1600,the Backoffice data transfer must complete prior to beginning the updateto the database in the Front End Server component. The Backoffice datatransfers is complete when multimedia and text data has been transferredfrom the Backoffice component, such as data required when updating anadvertisement page. Additionally, other information from the Backofficecomponent is transferred to the Front End Server component 804, such asin the form of an operational table. The operational table may includeinformation about the updated normalized data, which has been applied tothe Backoffice component, and which is now to be applied in thisincremental update procedure to the Primary Database copy of thenormalized data.

At step 1602, an initialization procedure may be executed to synchronizethe beginning of the update procedure for the steps that will bedescribed in paragraphs that follow. As indicated by FIG. 31, steps1604,1606, and 1608 may be performed independently and at the same timeas steps 1610 through 1620. The coordinating point labeled DB Prep atstep 1622 serves as the coordinating point for the different proceduresperformed in updating the database on the Primary Database, and thelocal copies of necessary files, such as the Term list identifiers,located on each of the server nodes.

At step 1604, the various advertisements are extracted from the datatables, such as those transferred from the Backoffice component in themultimedia and text data transfer. At step 1606, the variousadvertisement pages are packaged and made into a complete advertisementpage to be stored in the Constructed Ad Repository 842. At step 1608,the constructed ads are transferred and included in the Constructed AdRepository. It should be noted that in this embodiment the existing copyof the Constructed Ad Repository is updated in accordance with thoseparticular ads which have changed. Thus, the Constructed Ad Repositoryis updated on a delta or change basis.

Simultaneously, steps 1610 through 1620 may be performed in conjunctionwith steps 1604 through 1608. This may be done, for example, in aparallel fashion. Steps 1610 through 1620 indicate that process by whichthe various identifiers and other files associated with the Primary andSecondary database are updated. Steps 1604 through 1608 reflect theupdating of the Constructed Ad Repository 842 on an as-needed basis inaccordance with changes which have occurred in the advertisements.

At step 1610, various changes to the Term lists identifiers areextracted. In other words, it is determined at step 1610 whatidentifiers in the Term lists need to be updated in accordance with thechanges transferred from the Backoffice component. This is described inmore detail in paragraphs that follow. At step 1612, these variousidentifier updates are packaged. At step 1614, these various identifierchanges are transferred to each of the server nodes. In this embodiment,the actual data transferred at step 1614 are the raw operationalcommands as may be supplied by the Backoffice component to be applied tothe existing Term lists. At step 1616, at each node, a working copy ismade of the existing Term lists. At step 1618, on each of the servernodes, the changes are made to the working copy local to each servernode. At step 1620, the updated term list is installed. At this point,the updated term list is not yet available for public use in the sensethat it is published. However, a new version of the Term lists has beencreated which includes the updated information as supplied in thetransfer step 1614.

At step 1622, database preparation steps are performed. Step 1622 servesseveral purposes. One is a coordination point for the updates of thevarious ads, as well as the various term list identifiers. Secondly,step 1622 serves as a step within which the normalized Primary Databaseinformation is propagated from the normalized copy of the PrimaryDatabase to a denormalized form in the Primary database and thedenormalized form in the Secondary Database. In other words, the changeswhich are transmitted from the Backoffice component and reflected in thenormalized Primary Database copy are now further propagated to thedenormalized Primary database and the denormalized Secondary databasecopy. Additionally, at step 1622 as part of the database preparation,the validity of the transactions and updates are verified such that atstep 1626 the database knows it may fully commit to performing theupdate to the denormalized copies as used in performing user queries.

Steps 1624, and 1630, and, respectively, step 1626 may be performed inparallel. After the database preparation of step 1622, the ads mayactually be published as in step 1624 in which the updated copies of theConstructed Ad Repository are actually made available for use.Additionally, any updated images as stored in the Image Repository arealso available for use. At step 1630, the previously installedidentifiers included in the Term lists, as installed in step 1620, arepublished in step 1630. At step 1630, the publication of the variousidentifiers included in the Term lists generally means that the Termlists are available for use, as by the Query Engine. At step 1626, whichmay be performed in parallel with the steps of publishing the ads andpublishing the identifiers, the database commits to performing theupdate.

It should generally be noted that steps 1614 through 1620 are performedindependently for each server node in this embodiment. Additionally, theactual amount of processing performed on the Term lists varies inaccordance with the number of updates or transactions, as will bedescribed in conjunction with FIG. 32.

Referring now to FIG. 32, shown is one embodiment of the various methodsteps for performing update steps in accordance with a particular numberof update transactions as sent from the Backoffice component 818. Atstep 1634, a determination is made as to the number of updatetransactions. This determination involves a comparison with twothreshold values each describing a particular threshold number oftransactions. Generally, THRESHOLD 1 describes a relatively small numberof transactions. In this particular embodiment, a relatively smallnumber of updates generally refers to less than 30,000 updatetransactions. Also specified is a THRESHOLD 2 value which generallyrepresents a second, larger number of transactions. In this particularembodiment, THRESHOLD 2 represents approximately half a milliontransactions or update entries which corresponds to approximately fiveto ten percent of the number of records included in the PrimaryDatabase. Generally, as described in conjunction with FIG. 32, one ofthree update techniques may be applied. If the number of updatetransactions as determined at step 1634 is less than the THRESHOLD 1 ora relatively small number of updates, steps 1636 and 1638 are executed.In step 1636, the normalized Primary Database is updated. Generally,this is performed at step 1602 of FIG. 31 in which the copy of thenormalized Primary Database is updated in accordance with theoperational table as transferred from the Backoffice componentindicating the actual database update operations. At step 1638, due to arelatively small number of transactions required, the actual identifiersof the Term lists are updated. In other words, the Term lists areupdated as opposed to being rebuilt.

At step 1634, if a determination is made that the number of transactionsis greater than or equal to THRESHOLD 1, and also less than the greaterthreshold, THRESHOLD2, steps 1640 and 1642 are executed. At step 1640,the Primary Database is updated, as previously described in conjunctionwith step 1602 in which the normalized copy of the Primary Database isupdated. At step 1642, all of the identifiers as included in the Termlists are rebuilt. In this particular embodiment, both identifiers andmarkup files are rebuilt due to the use of the mark-up files by theVerity Information Retrieval software. As previously described inconjunction with FIG. 25, the Extraction Routines are executed to againproduce the markup language files and various update records needed toupdate the denormalized data of the Primary Database. In step 1642, theInformation Retrieval software is executed to produce entire new sets ofthe Term lists. Step 1642 is in contrast to step 1638. Rather thanrebuild the Term lists as in step 1642, the Term lists are updated instep 1638.

If a determination is made at step 1634 that the number of updatetransactions is greater than or equal to the larger threshold, THRESHOLD2, step 1644 is executed. At this point, a determination has been madethat the number of update transactions is so large that it has beendeemed more efficient to rebuild the entire database and associatedfiles, rather than update or patch the existing database and associatedfiles, as in updating the identifiers of the Term lists of step 1638.

The previously described procedure of performing a multimedia datatransfer is used to transfer, for example, the multimedia and text dataassociated with ads, as may be included in the Constructed Ad Repository642 and Image Repository 842 of FIG. 4. The granularity which indicatesthat an advertisement page has changed requiring the entireadvertisement page to be replaced in the Constructed Ad Repository is ifa single component within an ad page has changed. In this case, theentire ad page is reconstructed and replaced in the Constructed AdRepository 842. For other systems, a different granularity of change maybe used. Generally, as previously described, the various markup filesand Term lists are built as needed in accordance with the number oftransactions as described in conjunction with FIG. 32. The actualthreshold values may be determined in accordance with tuning of aparticular system and the size of the database the number oftransactions in each particular system. In this particular embodiment,the database as included in both the Front End Server and the Backofficecomponent are Oracle™ databases. The Oracle™ procedural language,PL/SQL, may be used to read the operational table and perform theupdates as needed to the normalized form of the data as stored in thePrimary Database included in the Front End Server component. Similarly,the same procedural language in files may also used to update thedenormalized Primary Database copy and the denormalized form of the dataas stored in the Secondary Database. Other embodiments may employ othertechniques to update both the Primary and Secondary databases inaccordance with a particular implementation.

In this particular embodiment, the previously described incrementalupdate procedure is one that is generally used to perform daily updates.However, in other embodiments, the same procedure may be used on alarger time period of transactions or updates. Due to the volume andsize of the previously described embodiment, this procedure is one whichperforms well when performed on a daily basis. For other systems whichmay perform a similar number of transactions for a larger time period,the previously described techniques may also be used.

In this particular embodiment, as may be included in the Backofficecomponent, the various updates to a particular record or for aparticular business or service may be collapsed before actually issuingthe various database commands to perform the updates. In other words,within a certain amount of time, such as within five hours, a singlerecord may be inserted, deleted and modified dozens of times. The endresult of these modifications for the small time interval may result inno net modification or amendment to a particular record. Thus, oneoptimization, as may be included in the Backoffice component in apreferred embodiment, may collapse various updates associated with aparticular record or business before actually issuing commands whichperform a database update as applied to the copies in the Backoffice 818and Front End Server 804 components. Generally, this may be determinedby using a finite state machine with the states of “insert”, “delete”,and “modify”. If the same record, for example, is modified twice andthen deleted, the net result is that only a “delete” database commandshould be issued rather than issue two updates followed by a delete.

Also, in this particular embodiment, the contents of the Page Cache 848and the Query Cache 850 are reinitialized when an update is performed,as in performing the incremental update procedures described inconjunction with FIGS. 31 and 32. The data included in the PHTMLexecution tree is also reinitialized.

A failure may occur when performing any of the steps associated withFIGS. 31 and 32. If a failure occurs when performing certain steps, thena recovery procedure may be performed. In this particular embodiment, afailure may occur for example, when using the Information Retrievalsoftware, as depicted in conjunction with FIG. 25. This may be due, forexample, to a problem, such as a software bug, with the InformationRetrieval software 908. For example, an error may occur when extractingthe identifiers associated with step 1610. Generally, step 1610 aspreviously described includes building the Term lists as determined inaccordance with the number of update transactions in accordance withFIG. 32. If an error occurs, for example, when producing or rebuildingthe identifiers in the Term lists as in performing step 1642 and step1644, it may be a recoverable error if another node has successfullybuilt the identifier files, for example. In this instance, where therehas been a successful build of the various identifiers on another servernode, a recovery procedure may be to copy the updated version of theTerm lists from one node to another node which has been unsuccessful inthe building the Term lists. This copy may occur, for example, after apredetermined number of builds of the Term lists on a particular nodehave failed. In this particular embodiment, this has been determined tobe a recoverable error with which an alternative step or technique maybe applied to also achieve the end result of the updated Term lists.Other embodiments of the invention may also include other alternativetechniques in accordance with those steps associated with a particularsystem which it determines to be recoverable.

In the previously described embodiment, the update techniques may beincluded in a distributed computing system having multiple datarepresentations as stored in a plurality of server nodes. The foregoingtechniques provide for synchronized updates of the various data storesin the plurality of server nodes.

[Targeted Banner Advertisements]

User query information may be used to influence the displays shown tothe user by the browser 824. In addition to displaying matchingcategories or business listings, as depicted in FIG. 44, the informationretrieval software 908 can be used to assist in selecting otherinformation to be displayed to the user, based on the nature of theuser's query.

In an embodiment of the invention, a banner ad 50 can be displayed tothe user. Based on the user's query, the banner ad 50 may be targeted tocharacteristics of the user that are inferred from the user's query. Forexample, an advertiser might conclude that a user who has entered aquery with the category “art supplies” is interested in art, so that anadvertisement for an art show or related matter would be an appropriatebanner ad 50. Banner ads 50 can also be targeted geographically, so thatads for businesses from a selected geographical area can be associatedwith search queries that include that geographical area as a searchterm. It should be understood that a system for targeting banner adsusing user queries can use a range of information retrieval techniques,such as the Verity techniques described above in connection withprocessing of information retrieval requests using the term lists 836.However, in an embodiment, a separate banner ad retrieval program 909 ispart of the query engine 862.

Initialization steps that permit execution of a banner ad retrievalprogram 909 are set forth in a flow chart 52 on FIG. 68. Uponinitialization, at a step 54, the system initiates the banner adretrieval software 909. At a step 56, the banner ad retrieval software909, in a manner similar to the information retrieval software 908, usesextraction routines to access markup language files and extract data.The banner ad retrieval software then generates banner ad term lists837. At a step 66, the banner ad retrieval software retrieves a list ofall yellow pages categories. In an embodiment, the categories are all ofthe available categories of business listings, such as all availableyellow pages categories. Next, at a step 68, the system establishes aset of super-categories. The super-categories may consist of a sub-setof the categories, or other categories. The super-categories arepreferably smaller in number than the categories, as thesuper-categories will be used to simply assignment of targeted bannerads to particular user queries and results of the queries. Next, thesystem may map categories to super categories in a step 70. The mappingat the step 70 many be a many-to-many mapping. A variety of techniquesmay be used to map categories to super-categories. One such techniqueuses a combination of automatic and manual mapping. Steps foraccomplishing such a technique are set forth in a flow chart 73 depictedin FIG. 69. First, at a step 104, it is determined for a first yellowpages category whether the category is to be manually assigned. If so,then at a step 106 the category is assigned to a super-category. Thismay be accomplished by user input in a conventional form. Next, at astep 108, it is determined whether any unassigned categories remain. Ifat the step 108 additional categories remain, then control returns tothe step 104, where it is determined whether the next category is to bemanually assigned. If at the step 108 no categories remain to beassigned, then control is control is returned, as represented byoff-page connector B, to the flow chart 52 of FIG. 68.

If at the step 104 it is determined that the category will not beassigned manually, then it is determined, at a step 110, whether thereremain any additional categories to be assigned. If so, then at a step112, the category is skipped and processing proceeds to the nextcategory at the step 104. Thus, all categories that are to be assignedmanually may be assigned prior to automatic assignment of categories.

If at the step 110 it is determined that no additional categories exist,then all categories to be assigned manually have been assigned, andcontrol proceeds to a step 114, where the system returns to the firstcategory that was not manually assigned, and it is determined whetherthe category will be assigned automatically based on the manualassignments. If at the step 114 it is determined that the category willbe assigned automatically based on the manual assignments, then, at astep 116, the system may compare terms that appear in the category toterms that appear in each of the manually assigned categories. Thesystem may thus obtain a ranking of the manually assigned categories inorder of the degree of co-occurrence of terms. Next, at a step 118, thesystem may assign the same super-category as was assigned thehighest-ranked of the manually assigned categories. Next, at a step 120,the system may determine whether there are any additional categories. Ifnot, then control passes, as depicted by off-page connector B, to theflow chart 52 of FIG. 68. If additional categories remain, then controlproceeds to the step 114 for the next category.

If at the step 114 for a particular category it is determined that acategory will not be automatically assigned based on the manualassignments, then at a step 122 a determination is made whetheradditional categories remain to be assigned. If so, then at a step 124processing skips to the next category and control is returned to thestep 114 for the next category. Thus, after manual assignment of allcategories that are to be manually assigned is complete at the steps 104through 106, then all categories that are to be automatically assignedbased on the manual assignments may be completed at the steps 115through 118 before control proceeds to the step 126.

At the step 126, processing returns to the first remaining category thatwas not previously assigned. At a step 128 the system may determinecertain statistics regarding the co-occurrence of terms between thecategory and one of the super-categories (perhaps also including theterms in the categories assigned to the super-categories). A variety ofco-occurrence techniques can be used. At a step 130 the system mayassign the category to the super-category for which the highestco-occurrence is found. At a step 132 it is determined whetheradditional categories remain to be assigned. If not, then controlproceeds, represented by off-page connector B, to the flow chart 52 ofFIG. 68. If so, then control proceeds to the step 126 for processing ofthe next un-assigned category. Although an embodiment of a technique formapping categories to super-categories is disclosed herein, it should beunderstood that other techniques are available. For example, manualmapping could be executed after all automatic mapping is completed, orthe system could rely entirely on automatic mapping.

Once control has returned to the flow chart 52 of FIG. 68, meaning thatall yellow pages categories have been mapped to a super-category, at astep 77 the banner ad retrieval software 909 may index the varioussuper-categories in a banner ad term list 837. The banner ad term list837 may take the form of a linked list of the super-categories, witheach element in the list consisting of all of the terms that appear inthe super-category, as well as all of the terms that appear in each ofthe categories that was matched to the super-category. It should beunderstood that these terms may be expanded, as described in connectionwith FIG. 40 above, so that synonyms and related terms are also storedwith each super-category element. Storage of these terms may be in ahierarchical structure that is capable of execution using PHTML scriptsor similar techniques.

Next, at a step 72 the system may match one or more banneradvertisements to each super-category. Thus, if that super-category isfound to be the appropriate super-category, the matching banner ad orads will be displayed.

At any time after initialization of the system, the system may generatea banner ad for display to the user. The banner ads may be stored on aserver, which in an embodiment is a separate banner ad server 809.Depending on the desires of the host, the banner ads may be eitherconventional banner ads or targeted banner ads. In the case ofconventional banner ads, the banner ad server 809 may store the bannerads in a conventional manner and cycle between different ads accordingto a predetermined routine, such as a round-robin routine, so that whenthe system calls for a banner ad (such as via an appropriate URL for thebanner ad server), the current banner ad is sent to the front end server804 for further processing and display to the user in a banner on theuser's browser 824.

If a targeted banner ad is desired, then the banner ad retrievalsoftware 909 may be initiated. Steps that may accomplished by anembodiment of the banner ad retrieval software 909 are depicted in aflow chart 132 as shown in FIG. 70. First, at a step 60, the banner adretrieval software 909 obtains the user's query. Next, at a step 62, thebanner ad retrieval software obtains the categories that match theuser's query. These categories may be the categories that are obtainedby the information retrieval software 909 in response to a user query.For example, if the user enters a query for “art supplies,” as depictedin FIG. 43, the user might retrieve a list of matching categories, suchas the eight matching categories depicted in FIG. 44. In an embodiment,the categories are those that were displayed as a results page in theflow chart 88 at the step 102 in FIG. 41. That is, the categories areyellow pages categories of each of the business listings retrieved inthe information retrieval query that was executed by the system.

Once a list of categories is obtained at the step 62, a variety oftechniques could in theory be used to identify a banner ad for thecategory. For example, an advertisement could be assigned to eachcategory. Thus, referring to FIG. 44, the category “Arts & Crafts” couldbe assigned a particular banner ad (or set of scrolling banner ads),while the category “Artists Materials & Supplies” could be assigned adifferent banner ad or ads. This approach presents a number of problems.First, the number of actual yellow pages categories is very large, morethan seventeen thousand in an embodiment of the system disclosed herein,so that the process of assigning ads to categories on a one-to-one basiswould be extremely time consuming and laborious. Also, becauseadvertisements often include time-sensitive material, they are changedfrequently, meaning that the ongoing process of assigning ads tocategory could be very difficult. Since many of the categories are quitesimilar to each other, as in the above example of “Arts & Crafts” and“Artists Materials & Supplies” it is instead preferable to assign ads tosuper-categories, as was disclosed in connection with FIG. 68.

Another problem with an approach of matching advertisements directly tocategories is that additional information about the user's preferencesmay be available from the user query. A system that relies only on thecategories ignores any information from the user query that might permitfurther refinement of the advertisement selection.

Referring to FIG. 70, once the banner ad retrieval software 909 hasobtained the terms in the user query and the terms in each of thematching categories, the terms may be weighted or normalized by thenumber of occurrences of the terms and the number of listings in which aterm occurs in a step 74.

Next, at a step 79, the banner ad retrieval software 909 may locate theparticular terms that appear in the user query and in the categoriesobtained at the steps 60 and 62 in the banner ad term lists 837.Location of a relevant term list 837 may be accomplished through use ofa table of pointers or other conventional technique. In the case of useof a table, the argument of the table may consist of a tokenized versionof the term and the table may point to the location of the linked termlist 837 for that term in the database that stores the banner ad termlists 837.

Referring to FIG. 71, a structure for a linked banner ad term list 837is depicted, in which a linked list of super-categories is depicted. Onelinked list may be established for each term that appears in a user'squery or in a category, such as a yellow pages category, retrieved bythe information retrieval software 909. Thus, for a given term, such as“restaurant,” a linked list 837 of super-categories was established atthe initialization step 77 depicted in the flow chart 52 of FIG. 68. Thelinked list may link elements 74, with each element 74 corresponding toa document (a document in this case consisting of all of the words in aparticular super-category, plus all words in the categories mapped tothe super-category) that includes the term. The elements 74 may includesub-elements, including a document identifier 76 for identifying thecategory and certain statistics regarding the document, including theterm frequency 78, TF, which indicates the number of times the termappears in the document, and the inverse document frequency 80, IDF,which indicates the inverse of the number of times the term appears inthe entire set of documents that are being searched.

From the table of linked lists of super-category terms established inthe step 77, the banner ad retrieval software 909 may at a step 81 rankthe super-categories. In particular, the system at the step 81 may rankthe documents, i.e., the super-categories, according to the appearanceof the words occurring in the user query and in the categories.

The ranking may be performed by a variety of techniques. One suchtechnique obtains a number for each term that appears in the user queryand in the categories that consists of the product of the term frequencyfor that term and the inverse document frequency for that term. The sumof all the resulting numbers may be calculated for all super-categories,and the super-category with the highest sum may be the highest rankeddocument. The banner ad that was assigned to that highest rankedsuper-category at the step 72 of the flow chart 52 can then be displayedupon completion of the ranking step 81 of the flow chart 132.

Other techniques for weighting may also be used. For example, if a termis a high frequency term, it may not make much difference in logicalsignificance whether the term occurs, for example, one thousand times,in the search, or whether the term occurs one million times. In order tocollapse the significance of such high frequency terms, it may bedesirable to use the a logarithm or related measure of the termfrequency and the inverse document frequency, rather than the rawnumbers. Thus, the inverse document frequency may be defined as:IDF=log(N−IDF _(t))log(N)where N is the number of documents in the document set and IDF is rawinverse document frequency number. Similarly, a statistic can be used todetermine the term frequency, TF. A statistic known as Robertson's termfrequency for a document is defined as follows:RTF=TF/((TF+0.5+1.5(DL/ADL))where TF is the raw frequency of a term in a document, DL is the lengthof the document, and ADL is the average length of a document in thesearch.

These statistics may be further improved by weighting other factors. Forexample, it is possible to weight each term that appears in one of thecategories that is retrieved upon execution of a user query and tonormalize the IDF and RTF statistics over the weights. Thus, if aparticular category deserves a higher weight, then it might be accordedhigher weight in ranking super-categories. For example, a category thatis manually mapped to a super-category might be given a higher weightthan a category that is automatically mapped. The user query might begiven a higher or lower weight, than other information. Categories witha large number of listings may be given higher weight. In an embodiment,each category is given a weight corresponding to the number of listingsthat are associated with the category, normalized by dividing the totalnumber of listings. In an embodiment, the user query terms are eachgiven a weight of one. In the weighting process, the weight may bemultiplied by the term element in performing the sum of the product ofterm frequency and inverse document frequency over all terms for alldocuments in the super-category linked list. Thus, with the weights, anormalized version of the Robertson's term frequency statistic can beobtained, permitting improved tuning of search queries beyond what isaccomplished with use of the conventional Robertson's term frequency.

Upon completion of the ranking step 81, the highest rankedsuper-category is selected, and a banner ad that was assigned to thatsuper-category at the step 72 of the flow chart 52 of FIG. 68 isselected. The banner ad may be retrieved, such as via a URL, from thebanner ad server 809, for display to the user via the browser 824.

On-Line Advertising

Referring back to FIG. 3, shown at the bottom portion of menu optionsection 1812 is an option to purchase on-line advertisements (“PURCHASEADS ONLINE”). When a user selects this option, as by clicking with aright mouse button, subsequently displayed to a user is a series ofmenus for purchasing on-line advertisements. As included in theforegoing embodiment, the purchasing of on-line advertisements may beused by a merchant or business, for example, to display advertisementsor business information for goods as may be included in an on-lineelectronic yellow page listing. Additionally, as will be described inparagraphs that follow, advertisements may be associated with differentlevels of advertising services that may be purchased. The varying levelsof advertising services may display different types of information, textand images to a user when they are performing a search, for example, aspreviously described in conjunction with FIG. 15.

Referring now to FIG. 72, shown is an embodiment of a method of stepsfrom a user perspective when a user or merchant purchases an on-lineadvertisement. At step 3000, user authorization and access to theon-line advertisement system is obtained. This type of security, asobtained at step 3000 is necessary, for example, such that a merchant orbusiness owner that purchases an advertisement controls subsequentaccesses to advertisement information, such as controls those who maymodify that advertisement. At step 3002, a business as included in theyellow pages listing, for example, is selected. Additionally, a type ofadvertisement or level of advertising services is selected. Generally,as will be described in paragraphs that follow, a business listing isselected in accordance with a business telephone number. At step 3004,an advertisement as associated with the type or level of service fromstep 3002 is created. At step 3006, an order is generated that isassociated with a particular user session and activities, such ascreation and purchase of the advertisement as performed in the priorsteps. This order, for example, may be used to generate billing andother payment information. At step 3008, payment authorization isobtained. Payment authorization, for example, may include obtainingpayment authorization for credit card information or other paymentinformation as may be entered on-line through a user interface menu HTMLpage and its data fields. At step 3010, the advertisement is published.As previously described, advertising is “published” when the informationis moved from the Backoffice database to the Front End Server. At thispoint, when a user performs a data query of the Front End Server, thisadvertisement is available for display to a user. At step 3012, chargesare reported and generated in accordance with the advertisement whichhas been purchased and published in step 3010. It should be noted thatthe generation and the reporting of charges may be a one-time occurrenceor may include several charges in accordance with the payment methodselected by a merchant. Details of the foregoing method steps aredescribed in more detail in paragraphs below.

The flowchart of the method steps described in conjunction with FIG. 72is one sequence of steps in an embodiment by which an advertisement maybe purchased in an on-line advertising system. Other embodiments of theSuperCommerce and Superpages system may include other methods. It shouldalso be noted that more than one advertisement or business advertisingoption may be created and associated with a business listing during onesession. In an example that is described in following paragraphs, forexample, a user creates a fact file and an advertisement and purchasesassociated services.

In paragraphs that follow in conjunction with FIGS. 73-98, various menusor pages as may be presented to a user connected on the Internet throughthe Superpages System are described.

Referring now to FIG. 73, shown is an example of a user interface thatmay be displayed once a user selects the option to purchase on-lineadvertisements, as appearing on FIG. 3 in menu selection area 1812. Thepage displayed in FIG. 73 includes two portions, 3024 and 3026. Portion3024 includes those options associated with a first-time user or a newbusiness for which an advertisement is to be created. Included inportion 3026 are options for a user who is not a first-time user andalready has an existing name and password. A user, for example, may login using portion 3026 if they have an existing advertisement in order tochange the level of service or modify the existing advertisement. In theembodiment that will be described in paragraphs that follow, portion3024 will be used if a user were on the system for the first time andassociating an existing business listing with a first advertisement.

On a display of the page shown in FIG. 73, a first-time user, forexample, may enter a business telephone number in field 3014. Selectionis then made to advance to the next step by selecting button 3016 on themenu or display. When this is accomplished, a different menu or screenis displayed.

Referring now to FIG. 74, shown is the resulting business listingdisplayed matching the phone number as entered in field 3014 from FIG.73. A user enters a business telephone number in field 3014, and a queryis performed of the existing database as will be described in paragraphsthat follow, of the Backoffice component of the system of FIG. 1. Thequery results in this particular example display business listing 3030.If this is correct, the user selects a business name, as by selectingthe business name with a mouse device. Upon selecting the business nameto signify that the correct business has been identified, a subsequentpage is displayed. It should be noted that if the business phone numberentered in FIG. 74 is incorrect resulting in an incorrect business beingdisplayed in field 3030, the user may reenter a phone number using thedata fields 3032.

Referring now to FIG. 75, shown is an example of an embodiment of ascreen display for a first-time user as logging on using portion 3024 ofFIG. 73. At this point, a particular business listing has been selectedby the user. Information used to verify subsequent log-ons to the systemof FIG. 1 is entered in FIG. 75. This is for security in that anyadvertisements created or purchased associated with this particularbusiness listing are protected by limiting access to those using thisinformation. The information is entered in the data fields associatedwith portion 3034. Once the information is correct, the user selects theYES button in portion 3036. This causes the next screen to be displayed.

Referring now to FIGS. 76-78, shown are various screens that aredisplayed subsequent to verifying that the log-in information iscorrect. FIGS. 76-78 describe various product offerings in the form ofadvertising services and options that a user may purchase and associatewith a particular business listing. It should generally be noted thatthe menus displayed at FIGS. 76-78 represent three pages of informationthat are displayed subsequent to selecting YES in field 3036 of FIG. 75.A user subsequently makes a selection of the level of advertisingservice that they wish to purchase. For example, referring to FIG. 77, abusiness owner may wish to create her own web site by selecting the website option 3040. This option allows the user to create a web page whichis displayed in accordance with queries made by users on the Superpages'Front End Server. Other options may be purchased, for example, byselecting the Fact File option. Priority placement in an advertiser'ssection is done in which a Fact File includes information about abusiness which is displayed in accordance with the query results.Additional types of service of advertising may also be purchased, suchas the “platinum hot link” 3044 and the “gold hot link” 3046, eachproviding a different level of advertising reach and service inaccordance with an associated fee. Other options as included in FIG. 78include modifying the basic listing 3052, and modifying the previouslyentered contact and log-in information 3054.

In this particular example, a user selects to create their own web siteby selecting field 3040 in FIG. 77. This causes the display of the menupage in FIG. 79. Generally, FIG. 79 outlines the steps which will beperformed to create a one-page web site for the particular business. Inthis particular embodiment that will be described, when this option isselected, the user is linked to another third party web site that hoststools to create the web page. Upon completion of creating the webpage,the URL associated with this webpage is communicated back to theSuperCommerce engine for subsequent uses. Similarly, other embodimentsmay host their own tools on-line for the creation of a webpage.

Referring now to FIG. 79, the user is prompted for a URL which isassociated with their one-page web site. The user enters the name infield 3060, and then proceeds to the next step to submit this as the URLselected, as by clicking on button 3062 of FIG. 79.

In figures that follow, various screens are displayed to the user inperforming those steps outlined in portion 3064 of FIG. 79.

Referring now to FIG. 80, shown is an example of an embodiment of ascreen display as presented to a user to create a header for the webpage being created and associated with the business listing. The header,as is created with FIG. 80, is displayed at the top of the web sitepage. The user may customize the header, such as by selection of colorsof lines of text by using option areas 3066 and 3068. When the header iscreated to the satisfaction of the advertiser, control proceeds to thenext step by selecting the button 3070 of FIG. 80. This causes thedisplay of a subsequent page of information in FIG. 81.

Referring now to FIG. 81, shown is the resulting header as created inone embodiment and selection of options as displayed in FIG. 80. At thispoint, the user may proceed to the next step by selecting the option3072, or proceed to recreate the header by selecting option 3074. Uponselection of 3072, control proceeds to the next step where a page styleis selected by the user from various page style/layout options.

Referring now to FIG. 82, shown is example of an embodiment of a screendisplayed with various page style selections of what the web site pagemay look like. In this particular embodiment, there are four pagesdisplayed from which the user may select a page style. These include amenu page 3076, a gallery page 3078, a graphics page 3080, and atwo-column page 3082. It should be noted that other embodiments may havedifferent page styles or may not offer any option at all.

Upon the selection of a page style from FIG. 82, the user is presentedwith various text fields which comprise the page layout. Various datafields are described in FIGS. 83-85.

Referring now to FIG. 83, the user is presented with the initial portionof a screen which include instructions to complete the web page for theparticular business listing associated. The user may customize a webpage, for example, by putting a customized welcome text line in field3084 and inserting an image, such as a .gif file, by selecting field3086.

Referring now to FIG. 85, shown is contact or address information infield 3092 associated with the particular listing. When the user issatisfied with the web page created, a SUBMIT option may be selected, asby clicking on button 3094. This causes the display of the final productof the web page, for example, in FIG. 86.

Referring now to FIG. 86, shown is a preview of an example of a web pagemade in accordance with previous steps.

If the user is satisfied with the web site page displayed at FIG. 86, aselection is made by clicking on a mouse button to advance to the nextscreen as shown in FIG. 87. Otherwise, the user may go back and modifytheir existing web page which has just been created.

Referring now to FIG. 87, shown is an example as an embodiment of a userinterface page displayed subsequent to the user creating a web page. Theuser is now brought back to the general advertisement selection menu. Inthis particular instance as displayed in FIG. 87, the create-a-siteadvertisement option 3100 has been modified from that screen previouslydisplayed in conjunction with FIG. 77, since a one-page web site has nowbeen created for the business. Thus, it is no longer an option presentedto the user as it was in field 3040 of FIG. 77. At this point, the userhas created the web site page and may opt to pay a monthly subscriptionfee of $40 in this particular embodiment to have this web page availableto users performing data queries and accessing business listings on-linethrough the Front End Server. A user may select to have the monthlysubscription by selecting the “place order” button 3102. In thisparticular example, the user selects to place their order by clicking onthe “place order” button 3102.

Referring now to FIG. 88, shown is a screen which may be displayed tothe user when selecting the option of placing an order, as by clickingon 3102 of FIG. 87. This menu displays various types of paymentinformation and the length of the contract as well as the variouspayment options and schedules available 3106. The various paymentmethods, for example, in 3104 include various types of credit cards,such as VISA and MasterCard. A payment schedule may be selected byselecting one of the buttons in the payment schedule area 3106. In thisparticular embodiment, payments may be made monthly, quarterly orannually by selecting one of these options. In this particular example,the monthly option is selected by clicking on the “monthly” button infield 3106. This causes a subsequent screen to be displayed to the userof FIG. 89.

Referring now to FIG. 89, shown is an example of an embodiment of ascreen which is displayed to the user in response to selection of amonthly billing for the create-a-site web page option. Field 3108includes various descriptions in the invoice corresponding to thepurchased advertisement service for create-a-site for the particularbusiness listing above the invoice. The bottom portion of the screen3110 includes an on-line contract which the user accepts or rejects, asby canceling their order. The user may choose to accept (“I agree”) orreject (“cancel order”) this contract by selecting one of the buttons infield 3112 of FIG. 89. Upon the selection of the “I agree” button infield 3112, the page displayed in FIG. 90 is displayed to the user, ason the Internet.

Referring now to FIG. 90, shown is an example of a page displayed to theuser to obtain payment information. In this particular embodiment, theuser is prompted to enter credit card information by which monthlycharges will be made in accordance with the advertisement forcreate-a-site advertisement purchased.

In FIG. 90, credit card information is entered in data fields of screenportion 3114. The user may subsequently choose to “purchase” thisadvertisement, and have this credit card information verified, or“cancel the order” by selecting one of the buttons in field 3116. Usingthe above information, in this example the selection is made to purchasethis advertisement in accordance with the order displayed and thepayment terms of FIG. 89. Upon selection of the “purchase” option infield 3116, FIG. 91 is displayed to the user.

Referring now to FIG. 91, shown is an example of a screen display thatis a response to the verification performed with the preceding creditcard information in an attempt to purchase an advertisement with on-linepayment. In this particular embodiment, the previously entered creditcard entered in field 3114 has been deemed invalid. The user may beprompted to enter a different credit card number. In this instance,should the user choose to enter a new credit card and not cancel anorder, a new menu or screen may be displayed again as in FIG. 90.

Generally, the technique used in this embodiment to verify a credit cardnumber is known and available in the industry. For example, commerciallyavailable are subroutines, such as provided by CyberCash, to verify acredit card number.

Referring now to FIGS. 92-96, shown are screen displays as may bedisplayed to a user in conjunction with the creation of a fact file. Afact file, for example, may be an advertising option chosen by a user inaccordance with a business listing, such as by selecting 3042 from FIG.77.

Referring to FIGS. 92-95, the user is presented with various screens ofinformation including data fields which the user enters in conjunctionwith the creation of a fact file. Recall, as previously described, afact file includes information about the business, such as hours ofoperation, services or products offered in conjunction with thebusiness.

Referring to FIG. 92, data fields associated with screen portion 3118include the year the business was established, as well as differentpayment methods accepted by the business. Additionally, at the top ofportion 3118 is a field called a “hot link” field which may include aURL associated with the previously created web page.

Referring now to FIG. 93, shown is a schedule of business hours that maybe associated with a particular business listing.

Referring now to FIG. 94, additional fact file business informationincludes products, brands, services, licenses and the like which areassociated or offered by the business listing. At the bottom of FIG. 94,the user may choose to select one of the buttons in field 3120 to“submit” or to “clear” the fields associated with the fact file. In thisparticular example, the user chooses to “submit” the order, as byclicking on a “submit” button in field 3120. This causes the display ofFIG. 96.

Referring now to FIG. 96, the user is presented with an example of averification page for the fact file. The information of how the factfile will appear online is presented in field 3122. The user ispresented with an option of accepting the information presented in field3122 as correct. The user selects either yes or no in the portiondesignated as 3124 of FIG. 96. In this particular example, the userselects yes by clicking on the “yes” button in field 3124 of FIG. 96.Subsequently, the user is displayed the page of FIG. 97. At this point,the user may select one of many options, including modifying thepreviously created site, as well as modifying the fact file. This may bedone, for example, by clicking on the “modify” portion next to thecreate-a-site option in field 3126 of FIG. 97. At this point in theexample, the user selects to “place” the order by clicking on button3128 of FIG. 97. This causes the display of FIG. 98.

Referring now to FIG. 98, as a result of the session which the user hasjust completed with regard to creating a fact file and a web page, theinvoice of FIG. 98 is produced and displayed on the screen. The invoiceis described in the top portion 3130. The bottom portion of the screen3132 includes those terms as may be included in an on-line contractregarding interactive advertising services. At the bottom of the page ofFIG. 98, portion 3134 includes two buttons. By selecting the “I agree”button, the purchaser of the advertisement agrees to the terms of theagreement, and also agrees to be charged the amount as included in theinvoice. Alternatively, at this point in the transaction, the advertisermay choose to cancel the order by selecting on the “cancel order” buttonin field 3134.

It should be noted that if a credit card transaction has beensuccessfully authorized, the user may be presented with a screendisplaying order information and confirmation that the order has beenplaced. The order information, for example, an order reference number,may be used by the purchaser for future reference.

Referring now to FIG. 99, shown is an example of an embodiment of theBackoffice component 818 as previously described in conjunction with thesystem of FIG. 1. As previously described, the Backoffice 818 includes aconnection to the Front End server 3140 as well as a connection tooutside users 3160. This embodiment of the Backoffice 818 includes asecure web server 3154 by which users may access the Backofficecomponent 818. The secure web server 3154 acts as an interface to accessthe SuperCommerce engine 3144. Generally, the SuperCommerce engine isthat which may be accessed by a user or advertiser in purchasingadvertisements in the system of FIG. 1. In particular, a user usesconnection 3160 to access the secure web server 3154 to perform themethod steps shown in FIG. 72, and additionally, to display the steps inconjunction with FIG. 73 through FIG. 98 in producing and purchasingon-line advertisements of the system of FIG. 1.

The secure webserver in this embodiment uses the Secure http protocol inwhich the webserver interacts with a user's browser using a thisprotocol. Products implementing this are commercially available, such asby by Netscape™. As such, any information received, such as credit cardinformation for advertisement purchasing, as will be described inparagraphs that follow, is encypted.

The SuperCommerce engine 3144 interacts with a database 3142, a paymentserver 3156, billing and recurring transaction reporting 3158, andseveral different files or repositories. The files or repositoriesinclude query template files 3146, and template execution files 3150.The secure web server interacts with and accesses files in the staticfile repository 3152. Generally, those files included in the static filerepository are static in that they do not change from access to access.The web server may access a copy of a static file and display it to theuser through connection 3160.

In the initial paragraphs that follow in conjunction with FIG. 99, eachof the elements will be generally described. However, more detailregarding each of these will be described in paragraphs that follow inconjunction with other figures and flowcharts.

The database 3142 generally includes information such as businesslistings and associated data as well as user log-in information forpurchasing an advertisement. Much of this information was previouslydescribed in conjunction with other figures regarding business listings.However, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 99, the database 3142 includesadditional information such as user log-in information in conjunctionwith purchasing an on-line advertisement as associated with a particularbusiness listing. It should generally be noted that other information asneeded in conjunction with on-line advertisement purchasing and othertasks performed by the SuperCommerce engine is included in the database3142.

The payment server 3156 interacts with other facilities outside of theSuperCommerce engine to post payments for example to other credit cardand financial institutions. The payment server receives its instructionas to what amount to charge a credit card, for example, or for whatamount to verify a transaction from the SuperCommerce engine 3144. TheSuperCommerce engine 3144 also interacts with the billing and recurringtransaction reporting unit 3158. The billing and recurring transactionreporting unit 3158 is responsible for generating billing transactions.For example, if a user had selected a monthly payment option, thebilling and recurring transaction reporting unit 3158 generates a billaccordingly every month which the payment server 3156 authorizes chargeson a particular credit card.

It should be noted that in this embodiment, the credit card informationreceived by the secure webserver is encrypted. This encryptedinformation is further passed to the payment server where all the creditcard information is stored. This has a benefit that there is limitedaccess to credit card information. In other words, because suchinformation is not stored in the database internal to the SuperCommercesystem, there is limited access to this information in the event, forexample, of unauthorized access to the database 3142. Other embodimentsmay use a different model in accordance with a particular system andimplementation. Generally, in this embodiment, the user's browserencrypts information using a first public key. The secure webserver 3154decrypts this information using a first private key corresponding to thefirst public key. This information may be further encrypted, forexample, if it is passed to the Payment Server. In this instance, theinformation may be encrypted with a second public key and is furtherdecrypted using a corresponding second private key by the paymentserver.

Query template files 3146 includes those files that are used inperforming various data queries of the database 3142. For example,different components of the SuperCommerce engine, as will be describedin more detail in paragraphs that follow, perform queries using acertain format with different data filled into different fields inaccordance with information provided by a user. The various componentsof the SuperCommerce engine 3144 may retrieve the query template filescontaining the different formats for data queries and fill in theinformation accordingly. Thus, the query template files 3146 includetemplates for performing data queries as issued to the database 3142.

Template HTML files 3148 are similar in function to that which isdescribed in conjunction with the Front End server. Generally, thetemplate HTML files include HTML code with conditional statements whichare executed in accordance with various options depending on what is tobe displayed to a user. For example, a template HTML file may displayvarious types of advertising options such as those included in FIG. 77.However, certain portions of the HTML file may change or beconditionally displayed in accordance with different levels of servicesoffered at different points in time to different users that may log onto the system. Template execution files 3150 are similar in function tothe PHTML execution tree files 846 as included in FIG. 4. It should benoted that the PHTML files 844 of FIG. 4 are also similar in function tothe template HTML file 3148 just described. The static file repository3152 may include various images for example which remain static. As anexample, one HTML file may include a link to other HTML files or imageswhich may be static. The secure web server 3154 would retrieve theseitems from the static file repository 3152 and return them to the userthrough the connection 3160.

Referring now to FIG. 100, shown is an example of an embodiment of theSuperCommerce engine 3144. The SuperCommerce engine 3144 in thisparticular embodiment includes an order management component 3170, auser and content management component 3172, an authentication and accesscontrol component 3174, a transaction management component 3176 and aproduct and catalogue management component 3178. Additionally, variousconnections to those components outside the SuperCommerce engine arealso shown in FIG. 100. The connection to the web server 3180 is used byall of the components except the authentication and access controlcomponent 3174. In this embodiment, the authentication and accesscontrol component 3174 accesses the web server through the user andcontent management component 3172. There is a connection to the filesshown in FIG. 99 through connection 3182. Each of the componentsincluded in the SuperCommerce engine 3144 are able to access all of thefiles as shown in FIG. 99. Also shown is a connection to the database3142 using connection 3184. Similar to the connection to the files, allof the components of 3144 have access to the database through connection3184. There is a connection to the payment server 3156 using connection3186. In this particular embodiment, only the transaction managementcomponent 3176 interacts with the payment server 3156.

The user and content management component 3172 is generally responsiblefor functions associated with user access and management of userinformation. For example, the user and content management componenthandles the function of verifying that a particular user has access to aparticular advertisement, or determines if a user is a previous or newuser. The information regarding user information and password, forexample, are stored in a database 3142 of FIG. 99. The user and contentmanagement component 3172 accesses the database accordingly to verifyuser information and store or update user information. Additionally, theuser and content management component 3172 also handles the content oradvertisement products available to a particular business or user.

The authentication and access control component 3174 is generallyresponsible for authenticating and controlling access to the variousadvertisements. It interacts with the user and content managementcomponent to perform this function. If a user logs on to the system,control passes to the authentication and access control component 3174.The user and content management component 3172 interacts with theauthentication and access control component 3174 to keep track of theactivity associated with a particular user's session.

The transaction management component 3176 handles payment transactionresponsibilities. For example, the transaction management component 3176obtains payment authorization for a particular credit card entered by auser such as by the HTML interface displays previously described. Thetransaction management component interacts with the payment server 3156in performing its tasks.

The product and catalogue management component 3178 is responsible forthose types of advertisements and services displayed to the user forpurchase. For example, various levels of services for advertising may beoffered to a user, such as Create-a-Site and the fact file. The productand catalog management component 3178 handles the tasks of updating thevarious HTML files and the like in keeping such product advertisementinformation up to date.

The order management component 3170 is generally responsible for thecontrol of which services are purchased during a user's session.Generally, the order management component 3170 is an integrator for thevarious items associated with a particular order then in a user'ssession. For example, the order management component 3170 interacts withthe transaction management component 3176 when the user has enteredcredit card information for a particular order. If the user authorizesproceeding with the order, such as by clicking on a particular buttonfrom a display menu, the order management component 3170 interacts withthe transaction management component 3176 to verify credit cardinformation.

Control passes between the various components of the SuperCommerceengine 3144 in accordance with user selections. For example, after auser logs on, control passes from the authentication and access controlcomponent 3174 to the user and content management component 3172 when anadvertisement is created. The page of FIG. 73 may be displayed to theuser to enter a business listing, or, to enter the name and password ifthis is not a first time user. In the event that a user name andpassword are entered and the log-in button 3022 is selected, controlpasses from the user and content management component 3172 to theauthentication and access control component 3174. After theauthentication and access control component 3174 verifies user name andpassword by accessing the database 3174, control is then returned to theuser and content management component 3172 to proceed with furtherprocessing.

In this embodiment, control passes to the various components of theSuperCommerce engine by associating a URL with each of the components.When a user makes a particular selection, for example, the URL is sentto the webserver which subsequently transfers control to the propercomponent. The mechanism for this transfer is included in the webserveras previously described in conjunction with the Front End server.Additionally, as known to those skilled in the art, additionalparameters may also be passed to the appropriate component as added URLparameters.

Referring now to FIG. 101, shown is a flowchart of an example of anembodiment of method steps for purchasing an on-line advertisement aspreviously described in conjunction with FIG. 72. It should be notedthat each of the steps in FIG. 101 has a parallel in FIG. 72. Generally,the steps support in the flowchart are FIG. 101 mirror those steps ofFIG. 72 and contain additional information describing what happensbehind the scenes within the SuperCommerce engine in accordance with thepreviously described user perspective. At step 3190, the user logs ontothe SuperCommerce engine such as to purchase an advertisement or claim abusiness listing. At this point, control passes to the authorization andaccess control component and the user and content management componentsthrough the web server 3154. At step 3192, the user selects a businessand type of advertisement. With the selection of a business and type ofadvertisement, control passes to the user and content managementcomponent 3172. The user selects and creates an advertisement, controlpasses to the third party website which offers to serve as a host tocreate the advertisement. When the user is done creating the webpage,control returns to the user and content management component. At step3196, when the user selects the option of purchasing or ordering theservice of advertisement, control passes to the order managementcomponent 3170. At step 3198, when credit card information is entered,payment authorization is obtained. To obtain the payment authorization,control passes to the transaction management component 3176 whichinteracts with the payment server 3186 to obtain this credit cardauthorization. At step 3200, the advertisement is published during thepreviously described update procedures from the Backoffice to the FrontEnd server. At step 3202, charges regarding a particular advertisementare generated and recorded. Generally, in this particular embodiment thecustomer or business owner is charged when the advertisement ispublished thus being available to users. Reccurring charges, if any, arealso generated in accordance with the payment method selected by thepurchasers of the advertisement. At this point, control and processingpasses to the transaction management component 3176 to generate the postcharges to a particular charges to a particular credit card using thepayment service 3156. It should be noted as will be described inparagraphs that follow that the transaction management component 3176interacts with the order management component 3170 to generate recurringcharges of bills, for example, on a monthly basis. This is described inmore detail in paragraphs that follow.

Referring now to FIG. 102, shown is a flowchart including method stepsof an example of performing a query of the database 3142 in theBackoffice 818. Generally, the method of FIG. 102 maybe performed byeach of the components of the Backoffice 818 in performing theirassociated functions. These will be described in more detail inparagraphs that follow.

At step 3210, the corresponding query template is retrieved from thequery template file 3146 by the appropriate component of theSuperCommerce engine 3144. The component of the SuperCommerce engine3144 places the appropriate query input data in the designated areas ofquery template retrieved at step 3212. At step 3214, a query is issuedby the SuperCommerce engine 3144 to the database 3142. At step 3216, thedatabase 3142 results are returned to the caller of the SuperCommerceengine 3144. At step 3218, the SuperCommerce engine component placesdata as appropriate into the HTML file at step 3218. In other words, thedata retrieved from the database 3142 is placed into the appropriatedata fields in a HTML file, for example, to be displayed to a userthrough connections 3160. At step 3220, the resulting HTML file with theappropriate data fields filled in as returned to the user usingconnection 3160.

The above step of FIG. 102 may be performed, for example, by theauthentication and access to control component 3174 when retrieving username and password information stored in the database 3142. The user andcontent management component 3172 may perform a query of the database3142 using the steps of FIG. 102 when querying for a particular businesslisting indexed by telephone number entered by a user. Similarly, orderand product information may be maintained in the 3142. The appropriatecomponents in the SuperCommerce engine similarly access the database3142 using query template files 3146. It should be noted that there maybe no results that are returned to the user as displayed in the HTMLfile. Each of the components of the SuperCommerce engine 3144 know whichfields to fill in for the corresponding HTML file in accordance with thedata retrieved from the database 3142 when appropriate in accordancewith various interactions with an on-line user.

Referring now to FIG. 103, shown is an example of an embodiment of arepresentation of a model used in on-line advertising. This model may bestored in a computer system as one or more connected data structures. Asshown on FIG. 103, a user 3222 and user authorization information isassociated with one or more business listings as uniquely identified byassociated phone numbers 3224 through 3226. The SuperCommerce engineassociates a user with each of these businesses. In other words, each ofthese businesses 3224 through 3226 is considered the domain of the user3222. Further information associated with each of these businesses asindicated by a yellow page phone number listing may only be modified byuser 3222. In creating an advertising, the user logs onto the system,selects a business phone number, and then creates one or moreadvertisements or other items each associated with an advertisingservice purchased by the user 3222. For example, the user 3222 may logonto the system using a specified user name and password and select abusiness phone number associated with business 3224. The user may thenproceed to create one or more advertisements 3228 through 3230 and afact file 3232. Each of these items 3228, 3230 and 3232 are associatedwith business 1. These may be modified by user 3222 only. Similarly,multiple businesses such as 3226 business may also be selected by user3222 and have associated items such as advertisement 3234 and fact file4238. Using this model, the SuperCommerce engine 3144 controls access tovarious businesses and advertisements associated with those businessesas well as the services associated with the various advertisement items.Regarding security access to the various advertisements purchased, theuser 3222 is required to have a particularly specified user name andpassword to access any advertisement information associated with abusiness, such as business 3224.

Various features may be associated with different on-line advertisingservices. In particular, a user or advertisement purchaser may controlthe way in which a company logo or other designation of a company isdisplayed to a user, for example, when a query is performed resulting ina business listing being displayed. For example, one of the featuresoffered by the by the system of FIG. 1 is the control by an advertiserof how a business name may be displayed such as an icon. For example,referring back to FIG. 15 in which various business listings aredisplayed, an advertiser may specify that a company logo may bedisplayed like a small icon. This may appear for example next to thename of the company and the phone number in FIG. 15 when the businesslisting is displayed in response to a user on-line query from thefront-end server.

Referring now to FIG. 104, shown is an example of a block diagram of anembodiment of how the SuperCommerce engine may store informationidentifying how a business name or other designation may be displayed ina business listing to a user in response to a query. Included in FIG.104 is a hotlink table 3240, a presentation information table 3242, anda URL table 3244. Generally, the hotlink is a link to a website such asthat created with the Create-a-Site option in which the hotlink appearsin the basic listing when a user does a query. If various levels ofservices are also purchased for advertising such as the platinum, goldor silver hotlink level of advertisement service described inconjunction with the previously display HTML page, the hotlink mayappear in a prominent position ahead of other business listings.

Included in the hotlink table 3240 is a business identifier 3246. Thebusiness identifier 3246 is a unique identifier which is unique toSuperpages identifying a particular business listing. This may be, forexample, the unique numeric identifier associated with a particularbusiness. The hotlink identifier 3248 is a pointer to an entry in thepresentation information table 3242. An entry in the presentationinformation table describes how a particular hotlink appears to a userwhen displayed in conjunction with a business listing. Blob Identifier3250 identifies in this particular example an iconic image of how a URLstring or other designation is displayed in conjunction with a businesslisting. Note that it may also include a text identifier if anadvertiser desires to have a particular text displayed of a name inconjunction with a business listing displayed in response to a userquery. Also included in the presentation information table is apresentation identifier 3252. The presentation identifier 3252 points toan entry in the URL table 3244. In this example, the presentationidentifier 3252 points to URL identifier 3254 which identifies a URLstring that will be displayed or presented to the user when a businesslisting appears as a result of a data query.

Referring back to FIG. 92, the hotlink or the URL website created withthe Create-a-Site option may appear as a data field in 3218. If, as inthe previous FIG. 104, there is a blob identifier associated with aniconic image, this iconic image may be displayed as a button. When auser selects this button, as by clicking with a mouse device, there is ahyperlink to the URL website, as created with Create-a-Site option. Ifthere is no blob identifier, the URL string may be displayed as a textbutton performing the same hyperlinking to the created website of abusiness listing when selected.

Referring now to FIG. 105 shown is an example of an embodiment of theinteraction between the SuperCommerce engine and the payment server. Inthe FIG. 105, the SuperCommerce engine 3144 interacts with theCyberCash™ server 3262. In this particular embodiment, the CyberCashserver is the payment server. The CyberCash server 3262 acts as aninterface between the SuperCommerce engine 3144 and the variousfinancial clearing houses 3264. For example, the CyberCash server 3262interacts with one or more financial institutions to process variousMasterCard™ and Visa™ transactions.

Referring now to FIG. 106, shown is an example of an embodiment of how aCyberCash transaction in this particular embodiment is produced fromthis particular order. Generally, in one embodiment as shown in FIG.106, a table of orders 3270 is used to produce a table of one or morebills 3272. Each record or bill that appears in the table of bills 3272has a corresponding CyberCash transaction 3274. A series of one or moreorders may be included in the table of orders 3270. A particular orderis identified by an order identifier. The information stored in aparticular record such as 3276 includes information corresponding tothat which may be entered by the user from on-line payment options whichis previously described in conjunction with HTML pages displayed to auser purchasing an on-line advertisement. The order identifier uniquelyidentifies a particular order. Other information that may be includedincludes a billing method, such as whether there is a monthly recurringcharge for this particular advertisement or order as well as theeffective date and customer information. The table of orders 3270 may bemaintained, for example, by the order management component 3170 of theSuperCommerce engine 3144. The table of orders is used by the ordermanagement component 3170 in conjunction with the transaction managementcomponent 3176 to produce a table of bills. The table of bills, forexample, may be produced to contain monthly billing statements forcustomers with recurring monthly charges. For each particular order, abill is produced. An example of a bill generated using a particularorder is shown as entry 3278 in the table of bills 3272. Included isinformation such as an order ID which corresponds or identifies thatparticular order in a table of orders 3270. Additionally, informationsuch as the amount which a particular credit card is to be charged mayalso be included in the entry 3278. In this particular embodiment, apointer or an identifier to a particular CyberCash transaction 3280 isalso included in the record 3278. The CyberCash ID identifies aCyberCash transaction 3274 which includes that information which isneeded by the CyberCash server 3262 to process an indicated credit cardtransaction.

Credit card transactions for which CyberCash transactions are createdinclude verification or authorization, and capture of payment orposting. When a user first enters credit card information on-line, forexample, using the previous screen displays, a CyberCash transaction iscreated to verify or authorize use of that credit card for a specifiedamount. When the advertisement is published, another CyberCashtransaction is created causing the actual posting of charges to thecredit card. CyberCash transaction 3274 may include information such asa credit card number and the amount to be charged.

Generally, the previously described technique associates a particularbusiness listing which includes or is indexed by a telephone number witha particular geographic location or site of a business. For example, ifthere was one telephone number for a business, such as a cleaningbusiness, that included five physical locations and each in one of fivedifferent cities, an advertisement is associated with each of thephysical geographical locations or chain stores even though they areidentified by one phone number. When a particular phone number is usedto index or identify a business, the user further selects which one ofthe five stores they are creating an advertisement to be associated withand purchase an ad. This should also be noted that in a particularembodiment, multiple user names and passwords may be associated withallowing access to a particular business listing and advertisement.

It should also be noted that the particular described embodiment forcreating a webpage with the create a site option is generally atemplate-based on-line ad creation tool. The template-based on-line adcreation tool may be linked to a third party site as in the previouslydescribed embodiment to create a webpage using an on-line HTML file.Alternatively, the ad creation tool may be an internal tool used andsupported within the SuperCommerce engine itself.

As previously discussed, a user is charged when an advertisement ispublished. At this time, the transaction goes through to the paymentserver to actually post the credit charge to a credit card, for example.“Published”, as previously described, refers to when an ad is pushedfrom the Backoffice to the Front-end server such as during the variousupdate procedures.

Referring now to FIG. 107, shown is a flowchart of an example of anembodiment of methods steps for generating bills in the SuperCommerceengine. At step 3290, bills are generated as included in the table ofbills 3272, CyberCash transactions in this particular embodiment arecreated for each bill in step 3292. In step 3294 these transactions aresent to the payment server. In this particular embodiment, the paymentserver is the CyberCash server. When these CyberCash transactions aresent to the CyberCash server, the credit card information is verifiedprior to the credit card transaction being posted. At step 3296, statusinformation is returned from the payment server to the SuperCommerceengine. Status information may include for example, that a transactionhas been successfully posted to a credit card or that the transactionhas failed for one of a variety of reasons. At step 3298, thetransactions are processed in accordance with their returned status instep 3296. For example, the status is indicated as successful,information in the database may be updated to keep track of the customerhas paid. Similarly, if the transaction fails, a customer recordsincluded in the database may also be duly noted such that service may bediscontinued at a particular point in time or that reminder notices ortelephone calls may be made by agents informing a particular advertiseras to the failed status of the bill. Similarly, notification may occurby other methods such as e-mail as well as a phone call.

As known to those skilled in the art, information of the CyberCashdatabase is generally synchronized with information included in thedatabase of the SuperCommerce system. This may be generalized as adatabase synchronization problem dealing with transactions that mayrequire reconcilation when one of the database updates related to atransaction fails. For example, if a transaction is successfully postedto a customer's credit card, a success status is received by theSuperCommerce engine. Accordingly, an attempt is made to synchronize andupdate the database maintained by the SuperCommerce engine in theBackoffice. If this update fails, a note is generally made by the systemto perform a synchronized updated at a later time until successful.

Referring now to FIG. 108, shown is an example of an embodiment of aProduct Information Table. The Product Information Table generallyincludes information describing the product and advertising serviceoptions that a user may purchase. It should be noted that this datastructure is a table format and other types of data structure may beused in accordance with each implementation of concepts of theinvention. In this embodiment, a table structure is used to provide theflexibility to add or remove table entries in accordance with productoffering changes.

Each entry of the Product Information Table 3400 includes product name3402, product identifier 3404, pricing information 3406, andcompatibility information 3408. Generally, the product name includes atext description identifying an advertising service as displayed to theuser. Each product name has a corresponding product identifier which maybe used, for example, by the SuperCommerce engine in identifying orindexing to product information in various data structures of databaserecords. Pricing information 3406 generally identifies attributesregarding product pricing, such as whether or not the service is taxedor may be included as a bundled product offering in combination with oneor more advertising services. Compatibility information 3408 generallydescribes whether a particular product may be purchase in combinationwith other products. In other words, this information describes whethera product is compatible with other product offerings. For example, if auser selects to purchase a first advertising service and a secondadvertising service, the second advertising service may not becompatible with the first service. If the second service is a supersetof the first service, the user may be instructed to purchase only thesecond service.

In this embodiment, the Product Information Table 3400 may be includedin the database 3142 and stored as a table data structure or equivalentthereof in accordance with functions included in the particularimplementation of the database. The table 3400 may be maintained andaccessed by the Product and Catalogue Management component 3178.

In the previously described embodiment, it should be noted that theInternet is the main connection in which users purchase on-lineadvertisement as well as create advertisements. Other methods ofproducing advertisements such as talking to a customer representative onthe phone, may also be included in this method in the previouslydescribed techniques. Additionally, concepts may be incorporated intothe creation of an advertisement other than what is previously beendescribed. For example, when a user is purchasing an ad, various degreesof “reaches” may be associated with a particular advertisement. A reachas associated with a particular advertisement generally defines thatgeographic span associated with an ad with a resulting data query. Inparticular, “reach” may be one of multi-city, multi-county, state-wideor nation-wide. Certain designations for reach, such as state-wide, mayeffect whether or not a particular business listing is displayed inaccordance with a query performed with regard to a particular state.Similarly, a designation of reach nation-wide may imply that theparticular business listing and advertisement is associated with a dataquery which is being preformed on a national level. This may bespecified for example by a series of fields associated with theparticular advertisement by which the user checks off what reach theywant their ad to have.

The foregoing SuperCommerce engine and components included in theBackoffice in this embodiment are written in JAVA and C++. Otherembodiments and implementations may be implemented in other hardwareand/or software combinations. In this particular embodiment, C++ isgenerally used for those components which are performance oriented suchas advertisement creation. JAVA, due to its wide availability, isgenerally used for those portions which are not generally focused onperformance but are rather concerned with reusability. Thus, theseportions written in JAVA are easily ported or executed on a variety ofdifferent platforms due to JAVA's wide availability.

SuperCommerce is generally an automated electronic commerce system. Itenables a unique commercial grade, comprehensive solution that allowsbusinesses to sell on-line products and subscription based services, andprovides customers with a self-service capability to create andprovision their purchased services.

SuperCommerce offers the full spectrum of complex functionality requiredto conduct business on-line and meet various business objectives bysupporting customer interaction, order entry, billing and payments,business lead tracking, report generation. SuperCommerce is included inSuperPages business, as in the system of FIG. 1, to open a new revenuegeneration channel through the sale of electronic advertising, such asadvertising on the Internet. Additionally, SuperCommerce provides asignificant cost reduction in operations by allowing customers andpartners to manage their own advertising content without any involvementof Customer Care staff SuperCommerce also uses a unique upsell model toincrease profitability. The net effect is revenue growth with largerprofit margins.

SuperCommerce provides an intuitive user-friendly workflow foradvertisement creation and management, state-of-the-art robust andsecure on-line payment system, a comprehensive marketing, customerrelationship management, billing, order entry and operations support.Generally, SuperCommerce allows SuperPages to bundle third-partyservices, enhancing its ability to rapidly bring custom offerings to themarket. Furthermore, this flexibility enabled self-service to a varietyof alternative sales channels: commission sales agents on the Web, GTE'sstandard Yellow Pages sales force, and advertisers.

SuperCommerce has an innovative, web-based architecture that allowsaccess from the Internet and Extranets to advertising and listingcontent, and operations functions, enabling GTE to use a virtual salesand support organization. Its open architecture supports automatedprocessing (self-service) for purchase of electronic advertising usinginnovative Java-template-based and http-based methods for creating orobtaining advertising content. This allows customers or GTE sales agentswith little experience in web page creation to build and publish variouskinds of advertising while maximizing GTE's flexibility to serve smallbusinesses quickly.

The flexible architecture of SuperCommerce supports custom marketing todifferent target business segments. Different product sets can beoffered to businesses accessing SuperPages through different saleschannels. Special promotions can be organized for predetermined timeframes. Businesses targeted can purchase the offered promotions using anexpress checkout option. The flexibility also aids in packagingthird-party products under SuperPages brand. Thus, SuperCommerce allowsGTE SuperPages to enhance their product set rapidly in response to thechanging industry trends.

SuperCommerce provides a robust and flexible On-line Payment Gatewaycritical for electronic commerce systems because of the industry-widelow preview to purchase ration. It offers business customers a widechoice of on-line payment methods and options including credit cards toinvoice billing. Additionally, payment options include one time and alsorecurring payments based on various schedules. SuperCommerce gives itscustomers freedom to switch from one payment option to another andsupports credit card replacements, bill adjustments, credits and voids.SuperCommerce provides an on-line transaction reporting system thatprovides up-to-date information on the sales, revenues, unpaid bills,contracts to expire, etc.

SuperCommerce is a robust secure site. An embodiment may use encryption,user authentication and innovative flexible role-based access control toprotect business information and to control operations granted tocustomers accessing SuperCommerce via various channels.

One embodiment of SuperCommerce includes a 100% pure Javacomponent-based scalable implementation. It takes the full advantage ofdistributed relational database capabilities, security (SSL, firewall)features, object-oriented design and development and Web-based defactostandards.

SuperCommerce provides the full spectrum of complex functionality tooffer business-business and consumer-business electronic commerceservices. This includes advertising/catalogue acquisition andmanagement, content production, development, publishing, order entry,billing and payment, sales agent management, business lead tracking, andoperations reporting. The system acts as an end-to-end self-service toolfor consumers, businesses, value-added-resellers and partners.

SuperCommerce addresses needs of various groups of SuperPages' businessusers. Those who use SuperCommerce to perform their day-to-dayactivities may include customer care advocates, sales managers, contentdevelopers, finance operators, and business customers. These users mayuse SuperCommerce to perform the following tasks:

-   -   Customer Care Advocates enter, edit, verify, and approve        business information and process user e-mail. They also create        and modify orders, maintain customer interaction history, and        generate various statistics regarding business operations.    -   Sales Managers perform product lead tracking and access various        sales and revenue reports.    -   Content Developers create, absorb, manage, and approve        advertiser's information such as FactFiles and web sites.    -   Finance Operators perform tax and commission calculations and        generate billing, payments, and invoices. They also generate        various reports, such as periodic billing reports, credit card        payment report, revenue report, etc.    -   Business customers update their business information and order        products online.

Self-service of advertising by business customers and advertisers usingthe foregoing may result in reduced staffing and operation costs. Thisgenerally allows business customers to maintain control over their ownadvertising and business listing content. Business customers can keeptheir content up to date without any interaction with Customer Care.

One embodiment of SuperCommerce was designed as an extensible, flexiblearchitecture, which allows:

-   -   Rapid development and development of new products and services.    -   Dynamic adaptation to new business processes without any        software changes.

The foregoing SuperCommerce embodiment has an innovative, web-based,architecture that allows access from the Internet and Extranets toadvertising and listing content, and operations functions, enabling GTEto use virtual sales and support organization. It supports automatedprocessing (self-service) for purchasing several types of advertising,minimizing GTE's operations staff costs. It provides innovativetemplate-based and http-based methods for creating or obtainingadvertising content. This allows customers or sales agents with littleexperience in web site creation to build and load several kinds ofadvertising while maximizing GTE's flexibility to serve small businessesquickly.

Most of the electronic commerce offerings in the market follow thesimple sale of goods model. Here a user selects the list of productshe/she would like to purchase and then checkout the products by payingfor them. This allows for a very simple process flow in interacting withthe customer. SuperPages' advertising products call for a complexprocess where the customer has to actually tailor the advertisingservice to their communication requirements. The SuperCommerce systemsolves this challenging problem by guiding the users through a series ofworkflow based tasks. Each task is deliberately designed to be simple tosimplify the interfaces and to give a clear context for the users. Everytask has a built in task-sensitive help information compiled and madeavailable to the users. A series of usability tests and focus groupsurveys were conducted to identify the tasks, which need to be brokendown to increase user effectiveness.

One embodiment of the SuperCommerce architecture is built on top ofseveral modular and reusable components. The system may be developedusing JAVA/JDBC technology to enable rapid deployment on multipleheterogeneous platforms without any porting effort. The architecture hasseveral component layers built on top of one another to leverage maximumflexibility and enable rapid customizations.

As previously described, payment, transaction and database services aregrouped as core services on top of which other component servicesreside. Payment service provides multiple on-line payment technologieslike Credit Cards, Electronic Checks and Electronic Cash. Since thecustomers of SuperCommerce include both consumers and businesses, thereis a need for providing flexible payment methods to satisfy differentuser requirements. In one embodiment, the payment service uses CyberCashmerchant server to conduct on-line transactions. The paymentfunctionality is wrapped in a http compliant messaging server. Thisenables both local and remotely hosted applications to access theservice.

Transaction service ensures consistency across heterogeneous systems.One of the major challenges was to provide atomic transactions acrossboth the CyberCash system and the local repository. This challenge wasovercome by developing and incorporating a unique optimistic concurrencycontrol protocol into the transaction service.

In one embodiment, database service may be built on top of the JDBCprotocol to support connection and session management. A significantperformance improvement was achieved by employing connection caching andsharing across multiple request. The JDBC solution also eliminated theneed to deploy the system on any particular database system.

Order management, billing and reporting functionality use previouslydescribed services to provide flexible business rule management andexecution environment. Order Management provides the ability to dobundling if advertising solutions into custom packages for differenttarget markets. Order management also consolidates the invoicinginformation for customers and enable them to pay using method of theirchoice.

Billing in SuperCommerce is more complex than the traditional electroniccommerce offerings. One embodiment of the billing system also automatesthe calculation of taxes using a data driven model. The tax rules can bechanged depending on the regulations and new business guidelines.

The presentation components use a template language, which allows UserInterface designers to tailor the different interfaces to suit the needsof different users in achieving maximum effectiveness.

An advertisement purchaser is provided with a view of their purchases.In one embodiment, the list of products purchased is consolidated andpresented in a simple shopping cart-like view. The customers can performone-click checkout and pay for all their purchases. The console enablesthe customer to not only confirm their present status, but also toexperiment with different combinations of products to select the bestsolutions to businesses. The customers have the advantage of being ableto touch-and-feel their advertising message without going through alaborious trial and error process.

Product and catalogue management allows change in the product offeringin a rule-driven model without the need to perform custom development.

Authentication and security services maintain a tight access and rolemanagement control over the functionality and the sensitive informationin SuperCommerce. A username/password-based authentication performed inan encrypted environment makes sure that the communication between thecustomer and the system is secure. In one embodiment, the paymentinformation and the customer contact information may be stored usingpublic key based encryption policies.

SuperCommerce provided a one-stop solution for the various stages of theconsumer purchase process. In one embodiment of SuperCommerce, thefollowing products may be used:

-   -   distributed relational database capabilities based on the Oracle        7.3.4 Enterprise database server    -   object oriented design and development (Java—JDK 1.1.6)    -   web capabilities offered by Netscape Commerce Server™, Java        Servlets™ 1.0, Java script and Java™    -   secure on-line payment capabilities of CyberCash Cash Register™        2.1.2

In one embodiment, there is integration with third party products.Interfaces enable integration of the foregoing system with Nextron, athird party provider of customized one-page web sites, and MapQuest, avendor which the SuperCommerce system uses for the geographicalplacement of its advertisers.

The foregoing system provides for:

-   -   Enabling multiple types of business customers to purchase,        create and manage their advertising context via a uniform        self-explanatory and secure Web interface    -   A flexible, component-based extensible and reusable system        architecture.    -   A common purpose fully automated On-line Payment System that        provides a comprehensive solution for on-line businesses by        supporting various payment types and schedules, transaction        reporting and tracking and hiding the complexity of financial        transactions from end users.

The payment paradigm previously described of recurring charges requiresretaining and storing customers credit numbers in the system.Subsequently, SuperCommerce provides sound guarantees that the creditcard numbers won't be stolen or misused by insiders or intruders. As aresult, the credit numbers in one embodiment may be stored as part ofCyberCash transaction orders inside the CyberCash server and query thelatter for the credit card number each time the new bill is generated.Subsequently, neither Customer Care nor Operations staff can view creditcard information as part of the Customer personal records.

In one embodiment of the SuperCommerce database, business, order andpayment related information is stored in an Oracle database. At the sametime the information about payment transactions is stored in theCyberCash Server through which they are executed. Subsequently these twosystems may be synchronized to represent a consistent view on thecustomer payment history.

While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferredembodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications andimprovements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled inthe art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention isto be limited only by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for advertising in electronic commercecomprising: creating an electronic advertisement while connected to acomputer network, wherein creating the electronic advertisementcomprises: accessing a server included in said computer network;selecting at least one advertising service from a plurality ofadvertising services provided in a menu of advertising services, each ofsaid advertising services including: an advertisement format specific tothe advertising service, an associated display area in which theadvertising service is to be presented, the associated display areacorresponding to one of a plurality of display areas, where theplurality of display areas include: a priority placement area, and atleast one other placement area, an associated advertiser priorityindicating a particular order for presenting the advertising servicerelative to other advertising services, and an associated cost;establishing the advertisement format as including presentationinformation specific to the advertising service such that the pluralityof advertising services collectively include a plurality of differentadvertisement formats; and paying at least a portion of the associatedcost via said server while connected to said computer network.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, further including: selecting a business phone number;and associating said electronic advertisement with said business phonenumber.
 3. The method of claim 1, further including: providing userauthorization to access said electronic advertisement, said userauthorization requiring entry of predetermined data identifying anadvertiser associated with said electronic advertisement; andestablishing a connection to said server via an initiated communicationfrom said advertiser, said initiated communication including saidpredetermined data.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said creating anelectronic advertisement includes using on-line advertisement creationsoftware accessed through a first network site and wherein said payingfor advertising services is performed through a second network site,said first and second network sites being connected to said computernetwork.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said computer network is theInternet.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said computer network is anintranet.
 7. The method of claim 1, further including: generating anelectronic order associated with said advertising services purchased;and obtaining payment authorization for said electronic order.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, further including: publishing said electronicadvertisement; and capturing payment for said electronic order.
 9. Themethod of claim 7 further including: entering credit card informationon-line, said credit card information being used to pay for saidadvertising services; interacting with a payment server to obtain saidpayment authorization; and interacting with said payment server tocapture said payment for said electronic order.
 10. The method of claim9 further including: transmitting said credit card information encryptedusing a first key from a browser to a secure webserver, transmittingsaid credit card information from said secure webserver to othersoftware; and transmitting said credit card information encrypted usinga second key to said payment server.
 11. The method of claim 10, whereinsaid credit card information is stored in a database external to saidother software.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprisingestablishing the presentation information as including at least onetable identifying the plurality of advertising services and apresentation identifier associated with each of the advertisingservices.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising establishingthe presentation identifier as including at least one of an iconic imageassociated with one of the advertising services and a link to a websiteassociated with the one of the advertising services.
 14. A method ofon-line advertising in electronic commerce comprising: selecting abusiness listing in accordance with a unique identifier uniquelyidentifying the business listing; selecting an advertising service froma menu displaying a plurality of available advertising services, each ofsaid advertising services including: an advertisement format specific tothe advertising service, an associated display area in which theadvertising service is to be presented, the associated display areacorresponding to one of a plurality of display areas, where theplurality of display areas include: a priority placement area, and atleast one other placement area, and an associated advertiser priorityindicating a particular order for presenting the advertising servicerelative to other advertising services; establishing the advertisementformat as including presentation information specific to the advertisingservice such that the plurality of advertising services collectivelyinclude a plurality of different advertisement formats; and selecting apayment plan corresponding to said selected advertising service;creating an advertisement corresponding to said selected advertisingservice; generating an order for said selected advertising service andsaid advertisement; obtaining payment authorization; publishing theadvertisement in said display area associated with said selectedadvertising service such that said advertisement is accessible via aserver of a computer network, said advertisement presented in aparticular order relative to other advertisements based on saidadvertiser priority associated with said selected advertising service;and generating charges for said selected advertising service.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein said charges are electronically andautomatically generated on a periodic basis in accordance with saidpayment plan.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein said periodic basis ismonthly.
 17. The method of claim 15, wherein said periodic basis isannually.
 18. The method of claim 15, wherein said periodic basis isquarterly.
 19. The method of claim 14, wherein publishing theadvertisement includes: performing update procedures to synchronize twoor more data stores of advertising information that is displayed to theuser electronically.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein publishing theadvertisement includes: displaying the advertisement in response to adata query of businesses.
 21. The method of claim 19, said updateprocedures including: determining a number of update transactionsassociated with one of said data stores; comparing said number with atleast one threshold value; updating a portion of said data stores whensaid number is less than said at least one threshold value; andrebuilding an entire portion of said data stores when said number is oneof greater than and equal to said threshold value.
 22. The method ofclaim 14, wherein said business listing is selected in accordance with aunique identifier that is a telephone number.
 23. The method of claim14, wherein said obtaining payment authorization includes; obtainingpayment information electronically; verifying said payment informationelectronically; and storing said payment information in an externaldatabase, and wherein said payment information is encrypted in externalelectronic transmissions, non-payment information being stored in aninternal database, said non-payment information including advertisementand product information.
 24. An electronic commerce system foradvertisement creation and purchasing comprising: at least one computingdevice, including: an order management component configured to manageelectronic advertisement service orders; an authentication and accesscontrol component configured to provide secure access to advertisementsand business information; a transaction management component configuredto provide for automated payment transactions generated in accordancewith a predetermined advertisement payment schedule; a product andcatalogue management component configured to manage advertising servicespresented to an advertiser and offer the advertiser a plurality ofadvertising services within a menu of advertising services, each of saidadvertising services including: an advertisement format specific to theadvertising service, the advertisement format including presentationinformation specific to the advertising service such that the pluralityof advertising services collectively include a plurality of differentadvertisement formats, an associated display area in which theadvertising service is to be presented, the associated display areacorresponding to one of a plurality of display areas, where theplurality of display areas include: a priority placement area, and atleast one other placement area, an associated advertiser priorityindicating a particular order for presenting the advertising servicerelative to other advertising services; such that the advertiser mayselect at least one of the offered advertising services to be associatedwith a particular business listing; and a user and content managementcomponent configured to manage advertisement content and businesslisting selection activity associated with a particular advertiser; anda payment server in communication with said at least one computingdevice, said payment server configured to post and verify chargeselectronically.
 25. The system of claim 24 further including: a databaseincluding business information, advertisement information, andtransaction information; and query template files used to performqueries of the database.
 26. The system of claim 25, wherein said atleast one computing device further includes template HTML filesconfigured to display data and retrieve data via a user connection incommunication with said at least one computing device.
 27. The system ofclaim 25 further including: a static file repository that includesstatic file data communicated to an on-line user.
 28. The system ofclaim 24 further including: a secure webserver enabling the advertiserconnected through a network to communicate with other components of thesystem.
 29. The system of claim 24, wherein only said transactionmanagement component communicates with said payment server.
 30. Thesystem of claim 24 wherein said user and content management componentprovides for creating advertisements on-line electronically.
 31. Thesystem of claim 30, wherein said user and content management componentuses templates allowing the advertiser to create an advertisementon-line.
 32. The system of claim 24, wherein said product and cataloguemanagement component further includes compatibility informationindicative of compatibility of the advertising service with otheradvertising services, wherein said product and catalogue managementcomponent is configured to provide an instruction to the advertiser inresponse to the advertiser selecting a plurality of incompatibleadvertising services to be associated with the particular businesslisting, wherein the compatibility information is indicative of whetherthe advertising service is allowed to be purchased in combination withother advertising services.
 33. The system of claim 24, wherein saidproduct and catalogue management component further includescompatibility information indicative of compatibility of the advertisingservice with other advertising services, wherein said product andcatalogue management component is configured to provide an instructionto the advertiser in response to the advertiser selecting a plurality ofincompatible advertising services to be associated with the particularbusiness listing, wherein the compatibility information is indicative ofwhether a plurality of the advertising services is allowed to beconcurrently associated with the particular business listing.
 34. Thesystem of claim 24, wherein said product and catalogue managementcomponent further includes compatibility information indicative ofcompatibility of the advertising service with other advertisingservices, wherein said product and catalogue management component isconfigured to provide an instruction to the advertiser in response tothe advertiser selecting a plurality of incompatible advertisingservices to be associated with the particular business listing, whereinthe plurality of advertising services includes a first advertisingservice and a second advertising service, the compatibility informationindicating a lack of compatibility between the first and secondadvertising services.
 35. A system for on-line advertising in electroniccommerce comprising: means for selecting a business listing inaccordance with a unique identifier uniquely identifying the businesslisting; means for selecting an advertising service from a menudisplaying a plurality of available advertising services, each of saidadvertising services including: an advertisement format specific to theadvertising service, the advertisement format including presentationinformation specific to the advertising service such that the pluralityof advertising services collectively include a plurality of differentadvertisement formats, an associated display area in which theadvertising service is to be presented, the associated display areacorresponding to one of a plurality of display areas, where theplurality of display areas include: a priority placement area, and atleast one other placement area, an associated advertiser priorityindicating a particular order for presenting the advertising servicerelative to other advertising services; means for selecting a paymentplan; means for creating an advertisement in accordance with a selectedadvertising service; means for generating an order for said selectedadvertising service and said advertisement; means for obtaining paymentauthorization; means for publishing the advertisement in said displayarea associated with said selected advertising service, saidadvertisement presented in a particular order relative to otheradvertisements based on said advertiser priority associated with saidselected advertising service; and means for generating charges for saidadvertising services.
 36. The system of claim 35, wherein said chargesare electronically and automatically generated on a periodic basis inaccordance with said payment plan.
 37. The system of claim 35, whereinsaid means for publishing the advertisement includes: means forperforming update procedures to synchronize two or more data stores ofadvertising information that is displayed to the user electronically.38. The system of claim 35, wherein said means for obtaining paymentauthorization includes: means for obtaining payment informationelectronically; means for verifying said payment informationelectronically; and means for storing said payment information in anexternal database, and wherein said payment information is encrypted inexternal electronic transmissions, non-payment information being storedin an internal database, said non-payment information includingadvertisement and product information.
 39. A tangible computer-readablemedium comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed ona processor performs the following steps: managing electronicadvertisement service orders selected from a menu providing a pluralityof advertisement services, each of said advertisement servicesincluding: an advertisement format specific to the advertisementservice, an associated display area in which the advertising service isto be presented, the associated display area corresponding to one of aplurality of display areas, where the plurality of display areasinclude: a priority placement area, and at least one other placementarea, and an associated advertiser priority indicating a particularorder for presenting the advertising service relative to otheradvertising services; establishing the advertisement format as includingpresentation information specific to the advertising service such thatthe plurality of advertising services collectively include a pluralityof different advertisement formats; providing secure access toadvertisements and business information; providing automated paymenttransactions generated in accordance with a predetermined advertisementpayment schedule; managing advertising services presented to anadvertiser in accordance with a particular business listing; managingadvertisement content and business listing selection activity associatedwith a particular advertiser; posting and verifying chargeselectronically; and publishing the advertisement in said display areaassociated with said selected advertising service, said advertisementpresented in a particular order relative to other advertisements basedon said advertiser priority associated with said selected advertisingservice.
 40. The system of claim 39, the instructions further includinginstructions for: providing a database including business information,advertisement information, and transaction information; and performingqueries of the database.
 41. The system of claim 39, the instructionsfurther including instructions for: enabling the advertiser to securelyconnect through a network to communicate with other components of thesystem.
 42. The system of claim 39, a first component tangibly embodyingsaid machine executable instructions for providing automated paymenttransactions, a second component tangibly embodying said machineexecutable instructions for posting and verifying electronic chargeselectronically, the instructions further including instructions forallowing only the first component to communicate with the secondcomponent.
 43. The system of claim 39, the instructions furtherincluding instructions for creating advertisements on-lineelectronically.